^;i^ii!isiii^liiliil ilii illii 




















*• ^^^ c^ 













0^ o"""* 




'^^ """^ <?> 






.^^''- 

-^^ v^^-%^' 








0' »»•• 










*^.c^' 







'■>.A'i 












o ^ 
















LITTLE PILGRIMAGES AMONG 

OLD NEW ENGLAND INNS 



UNIFORM VOLUMES 

¥ 

Little Pilgrimages Among 

English Inns 

By Josephine Tozier 

Little Pilgrimages Among 

French Inns 

By Charles Gibson 

Little Pilgrimages Among 

Bavarian Inns 

By Frank Roy Fraprie 

Little Pilgrimages Among 

Old New England Inns 
By Mary Caroline Crawford 

The Fair Land Tyrol 
By W. D. McCrackan 

Among Italian Lakes 

By W. D. McCrackan 

¥ 

Each, I vol., library i2mo, cloth, gilt 

top, profusely illustrated, $2.00 

¥ 

L. C. Page CBi Company 

New England Building 
Boston, Mass. 




A CORNER OF THE TAP - ROOM OF THE WADSVVORTH INN, 
HARTFORD 



^ 


$^$^9$$^ 


* 


$ 
^ 
^ 
^ 
^ 
^ 
9 
^ 
^ 
^ 
^ 
^ 
^ 
* 


LITTLE PILGRIMAGES 

mm 

OldnewEiidlandTnns 

BEING AN ACCOUNT OF LI'll'LE 
JOURNEYS TO VARIOUS QUAINT 
INNS AND HOSTELRIES OF 
COLONIAL NEW ENGLAND 


^ 
^ 
^ 
^ 
^ 
$ 
^ 
^ 
^ 
^ 
^ 
^ 
$ 
^ 


BY 

flDaii? daroline drawforl) 

Author of "The Romance of Old New England Roof- 
trees," " The College Girl of America," etc. 


ILLUSTRATED 


BOSTON 9 » « » » 

X. G. page & Company 

, , ^ , MDCCCCVII 


^ 


$$^$^$$^ 


^ 



C?1 



IjtfRARY ?f COWGRESS 
Two Oooi«-» Raceived 

C^' 81 !?»(V 



Copyright, igoy 
By L. C. Page & Company 

(incorporated) 



All rights reserved 



Iirst impression, October, 1907 



COLONIAL PRESS 

Electrotyped and Printed by C. H. Simonds &* Co. 

Boston, U.S.A. 



'LL view the manners of the town, 
Peruse the traders, gaze upon the buildings 
And then return, and sleep within mine inn.'* 

Comedy of Errors. 

" ^THERE is no private house in which people can en- 
^^i^ joy themselves so well as at a capital tavern. . . . 
At a tavern there is general freedom from anxiety; you are 
sure you are welcome . . . and the more trouble you give, 
the more good things you call for, the welcomer you are. 
. . . No, sir, there is nothing which has yet been contrived 
by man by which so much happiness is produced as by 
a good tavern or inn." 

Dr. Johnson. 

" ^T HE gods who are most interested in the human 
^^J^ race preside over the tavern. . . . The tavern will 
compare favorably with the church. The church is the 
place where prayers and sermons are delivered, but the 
tavern is where they are to take effect, and if the former 
are good the latter cannot be bad." 

Thoreau. 

" 3d^HOE'ER has travelled life's dull round 
J^^ Where'er his stages may have been. 
May sigh to think he still has found 
The warmest welcome at an inn." 

Shet^stone. 
Written on a Window of an Inn, 



FOREWORD 

A BOOK on Old New England Inns needs 
no elaborate justification. Few of us are so 
dull of soul that our pulses are not quickened 
and our imaginations stirred as we pass, at a 
country four-corners, a deserted house and 
rambling barn of unmistakable tavern de- 
scent. There it stands, in its sombre and often 
disreputable coat of weather-stained shingles, 
mournful reminder of a fragrant time that is 
now no more, mute witness to the truth of the 
familiar plaint that bygone days were — 
what these are not. Always one is eager to 
know the story of such a house and to re- 
people its empty rooms, in fancy at least, 
with those who once made merry there. Be- 
cause I have so often shared that wish I am 
happy to offer here some slight additions to 
available truth and tradition concerning these 
relics of the past, acknowledging, as I do so, 
deep indebtedness to Mrs. Alice Morse 
Earle's '' Stage Coach and Tavern Days " 
and to Mr. Edward Field's suggestive book 

vii 



Foreword 

on ''The Colonial Tavern." Town histories 
too numerous to name, Miss Elizabeth 
Ward's " Old Times in Shrewsbury," Rev. 
T. Frank Waters's Ipswich volume, Currier's 
" Ould Newbury," the valuable files of the 
ISI ew England Magazine and the carefully 
compiled works of the late Samuel Adams 
Drake have also been frequently consulted. 

But especially do I feel very deep and 
real gratitude to the many friends all over 
New England who have contributed, by 
their interest and kindliness, to the material 
for this book; and, in particular, I wish to 
thank the Rhode Island Historical Society, 
through whose courtesy half a dozen of the 
plates published in Field's " Rhode Island 
at the End of the Century " are here 
reproduced. 

M. C. C. 

Charlestown, Mass., August^ ^9^7' 



vni 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER 

I. When the Inn Was a Puritan Ordi- 
nary ..... 
II. Madam Knight : Traveller and 
Tavern - keeper 

III. The Father of the Turnpike and 

Some Related Taverns 

IV. Gubernatorial and Other Tavern 

Junkets .... 

V. The Inns of Old Boston 
VI. Some Revolutionary Taverns . 

VII. Some Rhode Island Taverns in Which 

History Was Made 

VIII. The Taverns That Entertained 

Washington .... 

IX. The Wayside Inn . 

X. Entertainment for Man and Beast 

XI. Tavern Signs — and Wonders . 

XII. Old Tavern Days in New^bury 

XIII. The Inns of Ipswich 

XIV. Some Portsmouth Publicans and 

Their Famous Guests . 
XV. On the Road .... 
XVI. Some Taverns of Romance 
XVII. When Lafayette Came Back 



21 

36 

54 

73 
104 

121 

148 
191 
208 
228 
241 
274 

292 

3" 
334 
351 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



A Corner of the Tap - room of the Wads- 
worth Inn, Hartford . . . Frontispiece 

Roger Mowry Tavern, Providence ... 6 

Old Ordinary at Duxbury ii 

Kimball Tavern, Bradford .... 24 

Bull Dog Tavern, Providence .... 28 

Pease Tavern, Shrewsbury .... 37 

Conkey's Tavern, Pelham 43 

Upton Tavern, Fitchburg 45 

Boltwood's Tavern (afterwards the Am- 
herst House), Amherst . • • • 53 
DwiGHT House, Brookfield. — Frary House, 

Deerfield 62 

Liberty Tree Tavern, Boston .... 84 

The Green Dragon, Boston .... 96 

Hancock Tavern, Boston 102 

Golden Ball Tavern, Weston .... 104. 
Wright Tavern, Concord. — Cooper's Tav- 
ern, Arlington 112 

Arnold's Tavern, Weymouth. — Sawtell's 

Tavern, Shirley 114 

Knapp Tavern, Greenwich. — Interior of 

Knapp Tavern (now Putnam Cottage) 120 

Sabin Tavern, Providence 122 

David Arnold Tavern, Warwick. — Peleg 

Arnold Tavern, near Woonsocket . 139 



PAGE 



List of Illustrations 

Eleazer Arnold Tavern, near Quinsnicket, 
Lincoln. — Greenville Tavern, Smith- 
field 142''^ 

Parsons Tavern (afterwards Williams Tav- 
ern), Springfield 157. 

Ye Olde Tavern, West Brookfield . . 158 ^ 

Abbott Tavern, Andover 182 

Wayside Inn, Sudbury 192 

Tap -room, Wayside Inn, Sudbury . . . 197 
Winn House, Woburn. — Paxton Inn, Paxton 209 ^ 
Ellery Tavern, Gloucester. — Brigham's 
Tavern (now the Westborough Hotel), 

Westborough 224 

Sign of the Hancock Tavern, Boston . . 229 
Sign of the Benjamin Wiggin Tavern, Hop- 
KiNTON. — Sign of the Wolfe Tavern, 

Newburyport 236 

Sign of Boltwood's Tavern, Amherst . . 239 

Coffin House, Newbury 243 

Wolfe Tavern, Newburyport . . . .252 
Notice of Prince Stetson Regarding His 

Taking Charge of the Wolfe Tatern . 259 
Home of Mrs. Harriett Prescott Spofford, 
Newburyport. — Boynton Tavern, on 
THE Newburyport Road . . . .272 
Whipple House, Ipswich. — Caleb Lord 

House, Ipswich 285 

Ross Tavern, Ipswich 291 

The Earl of Halifax (Stayers Inn), Ports- 
mouth 296 

Rice Tavern, Kittery, opposite Portsmouth 300 
PuRCELL House, Portsmouth .... 306 
Old Concord Coach. — Wadsworth Inn, 

Hartford 312 

Groton Inn, Groton 328 

Eagle Tavern, East Poultney . . . .331 



xu 



List of Illustrations 



Fowler Tavern, Westfield 
Berry Tavern, Danvers 
Golden Ball Tavern, Providence 
WiGGiN Tavern, Hopkinton . 
Jameson Tavern, Freeport 
Shepard Inn, Bath 



PAGE 

334 
342 

355 

366 
368 

370 



Little Pilgrimages Among 
Old New En^and Inns 

CHAPTER I 

WHEN THE INN WAS A PURITAN ORDINARY 

" In the brave days of old," as writers of 
historical novels are fond of calling our colo- 
nial period, every department of public life 
was bound up with the church. To this rule 
the " ordinary " or inn of the time presented 
no exception. Odd as it seems to us public 
houses were licensed for the express purpose 
of promoting the worship of God! Usually 
the ordinary was right next door to the meet- 
ing-house; often such proximity was indeed 
the single condition upon which permits to 
sell " beare " were granted. Thus we find 
the records of 165 1 granting John Vyall of 
JBoston " Libertie to keep a house of Com- 
mon entertainment if the Countie Court Con- 



Among Old New England Inns 

sent, provided he keepe it near the new 
meeting house." The contrast to the present 
laws which prohibit the sale of liquor within 
a certain distance of any church is striking. 
Yet there was just as good a reason that 
the ordinary of the seventeenth century 
should be near the place of public worship 
as that the " hotel " of the twentieth century 
should be well removed therefrom. Physical 
as well as mental discomfort attended the 
church-going of that far-off time. A fire 
was never kindled in the colonial meeting- 
house and it was almost necessary to contin- 
ued existence that the good people who had 
come from miles away to worship the Lord 
should find a cheerful place in which to 
thaw out between the cold drive and the 
chilly service. Naturally the ordinary came 
in for a reciprocal benefit during the noon 
rest for refreshment. It then had opportunity 
to sell many a mug of the potent flip, invalu- 
able for raising spirits which had been 
depressed by dreary discourses on Hell. 
Occasionally, indeed, pious folk were made 
so comfortable in the tap-room at noon that 
they were incapacitated for attendance at the 
afternoon service, thus bringing scandal upon 
the inn-keeper concerned. 



IVhen the Inn Was a Puritan Ordinary 

So close was the relationship between the 
tavern and the church in Puritan days that 
religious services were not infrequently held 
in an inn pending the erection of a suitable 
meeting-house. Such was the case in Fitch- 
burg, Massachusetts, and in Providence, 
Rhode Island, where Roger Williams 
preached for many years. 

No tavern with which we shall have to do 
is richer in traditions than this first hostelry 
ever established in the Providence settlement. 
Before its destruction about eight years ago, 
it was not only the oldest house in that city 
but it was long distinguished, among other 
things, as being the only one in the north end 
of the town that escaped when Providence 
was burned during King Philip's War. 
Goodman Mowry, who came to Rhode Island 
from Salem, was licensed in May 1655 to 
keep a house of entertainment, and was 
directed to " sett out a convenient signe at ye 
most perspicuous place of ye saide house 
thereby to give notice to strangers that it is 
a house of entertainment." From this time 
on Mowry's house was a prominent feature 
of the town's life. In many ways its uses 
were typical of hundreds of other ordinaries. 
Here the people of the settlement assembled 



Among Old New England Inns 

and discussed the news; here the town coun- 
cil held its meetings, and here was enacted 
several thrilling scenes of one of those ter- 
rible tragedies which now and then darken 
the pages of early New England history. 

Among the young men helped by the noble 
Roger Williams during his life in Provi- 
dence was a young Dutch lad named John 
Clauson, whom he had one day come across 
in a half-naked and starving condition and 
taken to his own home for food and shelter. 
No friends or family turning up to claim the 
youth, Williams brought him up in his own 
household, whence, having grown to man's 
estate, he went forth to serve his townsmen 
as a carpenter. Ere long he had so prospered 
that he acquired a tract of land and built 
himself a good house. 

Then, one winter morning in 1660 Clauson 
was found in a dying condition near a clump 
of barberry bushes which grew at the road- 
side a stone's throw from Mowry's tavern. 
His head had been cut as with a broadaxe, 
and though he was tenderly cared for at 
Williams' home near-by, to which he was 
immediately carried, he soon died, in the 
presence of a little group of friends, includ- 
ing Williams. But he did not pass away. 



IVhen the Inn Was a Puritan Ordinary 

difficult as it was for him to speak, without 
first accusing a neighbour, John Hernton, of 
being the instigator of his murder and calling 
down upon this man, his children and his 
children's children the curse of being 
" marked with split chins and haunted by 
barberry bushes." 

The horror of the scene can be imagined 
when it is added that, among the first to 
reach the side of the wounded youth after 
he had been carried to the home of his child- 
hood, were the father and mother of the 
very man he now accused of his death. They 
had been administering " sack and sugar 
whilst he lay wounded" says the record! 

Great excitement prevailed about the town 
when the news of Clauson's curse got abroad 
but, before long, the deed was fastened upon 
one Waumanitt, an Indian, and he was 
apprehended and taken to Mowry's tavern 
where he was locked up and securely 
guarded. In spite of the accusation of the 
dying man, John Hernton was not con- 
demned by his townspeople, though the tradi- 
tion that he inspired the deed probably died 
hard. 

The records are chiefly concerned with 
the expenses attending the trial of the Indian. 

5 



Among Old New England Inns 

As Clauson had no kindred, the town treas- 
urer was directed to pay the charges for the 
prosecution from the sale of the property of 
the dead Dutchman. We find a bill rendered 
by Henry Fowler, the town blacksmith, " for 
irons " to bind the murderer. (This was the 
first murder in the settlement and none of 
the paraphernalia of punishment was at 
hand.) A guard of nine men, including '' the 
man at Moories," charged three shillings a 
night to watch the prisoner; and Stephen 
Northup, the town constable, was paid three 
shillings for " warning the town about the 
prisoner." Landlord Mowry rendered a bill 
of four shillings ^^ for houseroom for the 
prisoner," and at the preliminary hearing 
Roger Williams and Valentine Whitman, 
who could speak the Indian tongue, earned 
twelve shillings as interpreters. 

A Puritan ordinary, which was sometimes 
used as a church, was held, however, to be 
no proper place in which to confine a redskin 
murderer, and it was accordingly determined 
" that the prisoner Waumanitt shall be sent 
down unto Newport to the Collony prison 
There to be kept until his tyme of Triall." 
So, in a boat with two of the townsmen, who 
had been provided, — still at the dead man's 

6 



IVhen the Inn Was a Puritan Ordinary 

expense, — with " i pint of liquor, and pow- 
der and shott to carry along with ye pris- 
oner " the slayer of Clauson passes from 
further connection with the tavern. 

Not only was a tavern sometimes used as 
a meeting-house, as was the case with 
Mowry's, but a meeting-house was occasion- 
ally turned into a tavern. So it happened 
at Little Compton, Rhode Island, where, to 
put an end to the struggle between opposing 
factions, the place which had served for the 
worship of God became a house of entertain- 
ment for travellers. Our ancestors had no 
reverence for a meeting-house save as such, 
and the interchangeable character of these 
two public institutions, the church and the 
tavern, gave them no shock. The Great 
House at Charlestown, Massachusetts, which 
was the official residence of Governor Win- 
throp, was in 1663 made a meeting-house, 
and later became quite easily the Three 
Cranes, a public house kept for many years 
by Robert Leary and his descendants. It is 
interesting to note that under the very roof 
which afterwards sheltered a tavern tap-room 
Governor Winthrop thought out the first 
of all New England temperance pledges, 
recorded in his diary as follows: ^' The 

7 



Among Old New England Inns 

Governor, upon consideration of the incon- 
veniences which have grown in England by 
drinking one to another, restrained it at his 
own table and wished others to do the like." 

Yet Puritan New England saw very little 
drunkenness. Landlords were forbidden by 
the court in 1645 " to suffer anyone to be 
drunk or drink excessively, or continue tip- 
pling above the space of half an hour in any 
of their said houses under penalty of 5s for 
every such offence suffered; and every per- 
son found drunk in the said houses or else- 
where shall forfeit los; and for every exces- 
sive drinking he shall forfeit 3s. 4d; for 
sitting idle and continuing drinking above 
half an hour, 2s 6d; and it is declared to be 
excessive drinking of wine when above half 
a pint of wine is allowed at one time to one 
person to drink: provided that it shall be 
lawful for any strangers, or lodgers, or any 
person or persons, in an orderly way to con- 
tinue in such houses of common entertain- 
ment during meal times or upon lawful 
business, what time their occasions shall 
requijre." 

The tithing-man saw to it that " strangers " 
obeyed the law, too. John Josselyn, an Eng- 
lish visitor to Boston in 1663, bears witness 

8 



When the Inn Was a Pttritan Ordinary 

to this fact as follows: "At houses of enter- 
tainment into which a stranger went, he was 
presently followed by one appointed to that 
office, who would thrust himself into the 
company uninvited, and if he called for more 
drink than the officer thought in his judg- 
ment he could soberly bear away he would 
presently countermand it and appoint the 
proportion beyond which he could not get 
one drop." 

Governor Winthrop, a few years before, 
had described thus the relation of one Boston 
constable to a lodger in a Boston ordinary: 
" There fell out a troublesome business . . . 
An English sailor happened to be drunk and 
was carried to his lodging; and the Constable 
(a Godly man and much zealous against 
such disorders) hearing of it found him out, 
being upon his bed asleep; so he awaked 
him and led him to the stocks, no magis- 
trate being at home. He being left in the 
stocks, some one of La Tour's French gentle- 
men visitors in Boston lifted up the stocks 
and let him out. The Constable, hearing of 
it, went to the Frenchman (being then gone 
and quiet) and would needs carry him to the 
stocks. The Frenchman offered to yield 
himself to go to prison but the Constable, 

9 



Among Old New England Inns 

not understanding his language, pressed him 
to go to the stocks. The Frenchman resisted 
and drew his sword. With that company 
came in and disarmed him, and carried him 
by force to the stocks; but soon after the 
Constable took him out and carried him to 
prison." 

When the stocks were not found effective 
to cure drunkenness, a Scarlet Letter method 
was employed. Thus we find Robert Coles 
condemned in 1634 " for drunkenness by him 
committed at Rocksbury shalbe disfranchizd, 
Weare about his neck and so to hang upon 
his outwd garment a D. made of redd cloth 
& sett upon white: to continyu this for a 
yeare, & not to have it off any time hee comes 
among company; . . . also hee is to wear 
the D outwards/^ 

Besides being closely associated with the 
church, the Puritan ordinary was often the 
place where the court convened. At such 
times the public house became the resort of 
large numbers of people, and the heart of 
the tavern-keeper rejoiced within him. In 
what is now York county in Maine, the 
courts were usually held at the tavern of 
Samuel Austin, the jurors being allowed 
" two meals a day at the expense of the county 

10 



When the Inn Was a Puritan Ordinary 

during the time of their attendance upon the 
trial." One of the important functionaries 
at these tavern-trials was the court drummer, 
who drew two shillings a day for beating a 
tattoo to attract the populace to the seat of 
justice. It was before this court at Austin's 
Tavern in Wells that several good citizens 
and their wives were brought, in the middle 
of the seventeenth century, for saying " the 
Divil a bit; " and it was by order of a decree 
here made that George Gaylord was in 1661 
subjected to thirty-nine lashes " for visiting 
the widow Hitchcock." Wherein this was 
considered a crime the records fail to state. 
Duxbury had several interesting old ordi- 
naries. In 1660 Mr. Collier, who was emi- 
nently distinguished in the public affairs of 
the colony, was licensed to sell the beverage 
to his neighbours in Duxbury, and this not at 
all for gain, but because the magistrates knew 
him to be a sober and discreet man and one 
who would not be likely to suffer any trans- 
gression of their laws. Constant South- 
worth, one of the Deputies, was similarly 
distinguished in 1648. In 1678 Mr. Seabury 
was permitted " to sell liquors unto such 
sober minded naighbors, as hee shall thinke 
meet, soe as hee sell not lesse then the quantie 

II 



Among Old New England Inns 

of a gallon att a time to one p^son, and not 
in smaller quantities by retaile to the occa- 
tioning of drunkenes." 

The ordinaries of the seventeenth century 
were far from luxurious in their furnishings 
as may be seen from almost any of the inven- 
tories made up when they changed proprie- 
tors. In 1674 John Whipple of Providence, 
who had come to that town from Dorchester, 
was granted a license to " keepe a house of 
Intertainment " and for years thereafter this 
was a famous place of resort. Yet when 
Whipple died in 1685 the inventory made it 
plain that his inn consisted of but two rooms, 
'' ye lower room " and '' ye chamber." In 
the " lower room " there was ^' an old bed- 
stead and a bed cord," " a cubbard press," 
"3 old curtains and a valian (valance)," 
" an old Rotten feather bed about 12 pounds 
of old feathers in it," " a joynt work chest, 
I joyner worke chair " and " 3 other chairs." 
In the chamber there were " two feather beds 
and bolster (one old)," " a whitish cotton rug 
an old torne sheet a part of a bed stud and 
bed cord," " i pillow and pillow case," a 
'' Red Coverlidd a bed blanket, much worne, 
three sheets," " three broken joynt stools and 
a Court Cubbard." 

12 



JVhen the Inn IVas a Puritan Ordinary 

Scarcely the outfit of the St. Regis this! 
But the early ordinaries, in the country at 
least, were not intended for guests who would 
pass the night. Their chief function was to 
circulate the festive flip up to nine o'clock in 
the evening and to thaw out pious pilgrims 
before and after meeting on Sundays. Ordi- 
naries in the large towns were a different 
matter. When Hugh Gunnison, proprietor 
of the King's Arms in Dock Square, Boston, 
sold out his house with its furniture and 
appurtenances in 1651 he realized £600, 
a right goodly sum for those days. The list 
of his household goods is of particular inter- 
est, not only for itself, but also because it 
shows that the custom of naming rooms ob- 
tained in the New England inn of the seven- 
teenth century as it had in the old England 
inn of the sixteenth. ^ 

" In the chamber called the Exchange one 
halfe bedstead with blew pillows, one livery 
Cupboard coloured blue, one long table, 
benches, two formes and one carved chaire. 

" In the Kitchen three formes dressers 
shelves. 

" In the Larder one square Table banis- 
ters drssers & shelves round. 

" In the Hall, three Small Roomes with 

13 



Among Old New England Inns 

tables and benches in them one table about 
six foote long in the Hall and one bench. 

" In the low parlor one bedstead one 
table and benches two formes, one small 
frame of a form and shelves, one Closet with 
shelves. 

" In the room Vnder the closet one child's 
bedstead. 

" In the Chamber called London, one 
bedsted two benches. 

" In the Chamber over London one bed- 
sted, one crosse table one forme one bench. 

" In the Closet next the Exchange, shelves. 

" In the barr by the hall, three shelves, 
the frame of a low stoole. 

" In the upper p'lor one bedsted two 
chairs one table one forme bench and shelves. 

" In the Nursey one crosse Table with 
shelvs. 

" In the Court chamber one Long table, 
three formes one livery cupbord & benches. 

" In the closet within the Court chamber 
one bedsted and shelvs. 

^' In the Starr chamber one long table, one 
bedsted, one livery Cupbord one chair three 
formes with benches. 

" In the Garret over the Court chamber 
one bedsted one table two formes. 

14 




PVhen the Inn IVas a Puritan Ordinary 

" In the garret over the closet in the Court 
chamber one bedsted one smale forme. 

" In the foure garrett chambers over the 
Starr Chamber three bedsteds foure tables 
with benches. 

" In the brewhouse one Cop, twoe fatts, 
one under back, one upper back, one knead- 
ing trough one dresser one brake. 

" In the stable one Racke & manger. 

" In the yarde one pumpe, pipes to convey 
the water to the brew house, fyve hogg styes, 
one house of office. 

" The signe of the Kinges Armes and signe 
posts." 

T^xcept for a sign, — which all ordinaries 
were required by law to have, and tap- 
room-fixtures, — which even the poorest of 
them did not lack, — this house of Gunni- 
son's was very unusually equipped. It con- 
tained no less than thirteen "bedsteds!'' 

By 1675 ordinaries had so multiplied that 
Cotton Mather complained that every other 
house in Boston was an ale-house. And in 
1696 Nathaniel Saltonstall of Haverhill, 
Massachusetts, protested thus to the Salem 
Court against the increase of ordinaries and 
ale-houses in the colonies: "Much Hon'd 
\ Gentlemen : I allways thought it great pru- 

\ ^5 



Among Old New England Inns 

dence and Christianity in our former leaders 
and rulers, by their laws to state the number 
of publique houses in towns and for regula- 
tion of such houses, as were of necessity 
thereby to prevent all sorts, almost, of wick- 
ednesses which daily grow in upon us like a 
flood. But alas! I see not but that now the 
case is over, and such (as to some places I 
may term them) pest-houses and places of 
enticement (tho not so intended by the Jus- 
tices) the sins are multiplied. It is multi- 
plied, too, openly that the cause of it may 
be, the price of retailers' fee etc. I pray, 
what need of six retailers in Salisbury, and 
of more than one in Haverhill, and some 
other towns, where the people, when taxes 
and rates for the country and ministers are 
collecting, with open mouths complain of 
povertie and being hardly dealt with, and 
yet I am fully informed can spend much 
time and spend their estates at such blind 
holes, as are clandestinely and unjustly peti- 
tioned for; and more threaten to get licenses, 
chiefly by repairing to a remote court, where 
they are not known or suspected, but pass for 
current, and thereby the towns are abused, 
and the youth get evil habits; and men sent 
out on country service at such places waste 

i6 



When the Inn Was a Puritan Ordinary 

much of their time, yet expect pay for it, in 
most pernicious loytering and what, and 
sometimes in foolish and not pot-valient 
firing and shooting off guns, not for the 
destruction of enemies, but to the wonderful 
disturbance and affrightment of the inhabit- [ 
ants, which is not the service a scout is I 
allowed and maintained for. ... I 

" I am now God's prisoner," the letter con- \ 
eludes, ^' and cant come abroad, and have \ 
waited long to speak of those and others but | 
as yet cant meet with an opportunity. You f 
have nothing here of personal animosity of 1 
mine against any man but zeal and faithful- \ 
ness to my country and town, and to the | 
young and rising generation that they be not \ 
too much at liberty to live and do as they [ 
list. Accept of the good intentions of, gentle- [ 
men, your humble servant, -f- N. Sal tons tall.'" 

Yet Cotton Mather arTc! Nathaniel Salton- 
stall to the contrary notwithstanding there 
was almost no rioting in the Puritan ordi- 
nary. Had such been the case we should 
certainly find mention of it in SewalPs 
Diary, — and that incomparable picture of 
colonial Boston contains not more than 
half a dozen entries in all concerning tavern 
disorders. The longest is on the Queen's 

17 



Among Old New England Inns 
\ 
birthday in 1714: — ^^ My neighbor Colson 
knocks at my door about nine P. M. or past 
to tell of disorders at the ordinary at the 
South End kept by Mr. Wallace. He desired 
me that I would accompany Mr. Bromfield 
and Constable Howard ^hither. It was 35 
minutes past nine before Mr. Bromfield 
came, then we went, took Aeneas Salter with 
us. Found much company. They refused 
to go away. Said was there to drink the 
Queen's health and had many other healths 
to drink. Called for more drink and drank 
to me. I took notice of the afifront, to them. 
Said they must and would stay upon that 
solemn occasion. Mr. Netmaker drank the 
Queen's health to me. I told him I drank 
none; on that he ceased. Mr. Brinley put 
on his hat to affront me. I made him take it 
off. I threatened to send some of them to 
prison. They said they could but pay their 
fine and doing that might stay. I told them 
if they had not a care they would be guilty 
of a riot. Mr. Bromfield spake of raising a 
number of men to quell them, and was in 
some heat ready to run into the street. But 
I did not like that. Not having pen and ink 
I went to take their names with my pencil 
and not knowing how to spell their names 

18 



y 



When the Imt Was a Puritan Ordinary 

they themselves of their own accord writ 
them. At last I addressed myself to Mr. 
Banister. I told him he had been longest an 
inhabitant and freeholder and I expected he 
would set a good example by departing thence. 
Upon this he invited them to his own house, 
and away they went. And we went after 
them away. I went directly home and found 
it 25 minutes past ten at night when I entered 
my own house." 

The Judge of the Witches, as might hafe 
been expected, had little love for taverns. 
Sometimes, to be sure, he made pleasuring 
trips with his wife to the Greyhound Tavern 
in Roxbury, — a public house which had 
almost the odour of sanctity, situated as it was 
between the home of the saintly Eliot and 
that of the prayerful Danforth, — there to 
make a gala dinner upon boiled pork and 
roast fowls before riding home in the " brave 
moonshine." But his general attitude towards 
taverns and their proprietors was one of 
hostility as can be seen from an entry made 
in his diary September 20, 1771, when he 
wrote, " Thomas Hale was made a justice. 
I opposed it because there are five in New- 
bury already, and he had lately kept an ordi- 
nary and sold rum!' The selling of liquor 

19 



Among Old New England Inns 

was not at all to Judge Sewall's taste. 
Readers who have followed the story of this 
magistrate's many courtships in an earlier 
book of mine ^ will recall, however, that he 
had not the slightest objection to partaking 
of '^ Canary " once it had been sold. 

» " The Romance of Old New England Churches." 



20 



CHAPTER II 

MADAM KNIGHT: TRAVELLER AND TAVERN- 
KEEPER 

Every one v^ho has explored at all the 
annals of early New England has met with 
the name and the fame of Sarah Knight. 
The arduous journey from Boston to New 
York which this intrepid woman made in 
1704 and an account of which she at that 
time committed to paper is far too remark- 
able not to have become a classic allusion 
among writers who treat colonial subjects. 
Yet one has to search far and long before one 
can find the diary as originally printed; and 
few who read therein Madam Knight's 
diatribes against many of the public houses 
at which she stopped during her journey 
realize that the lady herself became a tav- 
ern-keeper towards the end of her life. 

It was of course a very unusual experience 
which this Boston-born woman invited when 
she set out on horseback, and with no proper 

21 



Among Old New England Inns 

escort, to make her journey to distant 
New York two long centuries ago. Some 
idea of the remoteness of that time is gained 
from remembering that Peregrine White, the 
first child born after the landing of the Pil- 
grims at Plymouth, had just died, that it 
was five years before the birth of Dr. John- 
son, one year before the birth of Benjamin 
Franklin and twenty-seven years before the 
great Washington came as a little child 
among us. 

Madam Knight's father and mother were 
among the first settlers of Charlestown and 
are both buried in the Copp's Hill cemetery, 
Boston. For many years they lived on North 
square, in a house which was later the resi- 
dence of Samuel Mather. It was on the 
doorstep of this house that Captain Kemble 
saluted his wife, one Sabbath day, after 
returning from a three years' absence, thus 
calling down upon his head the penalty of 
two hours in the stocks '' for lewd and 
unseemly conduct!" This was in 1673 when 
the daughter who was to make his name 
remembered was a child of seven. 

The year of Sarah Kemble's marriage to 
Richard Knight cannot be determined, nor 
is there any data to show what manner of 

22 



Madam Kiiight 

man he was. At the time of the famous 
journey he must have been either dead or 
abroad, however, for no husband properly 
protective would have allowed his wife to 
undertake so hazardous a trip merely for the 
sake of settling an estate. 

To be sure the lady was not absolutely 
alone. The government post man gave her 
the benefit of his manly protection a part of 
the time and when he was not available she 
hired another guide. But the entertainment 
afforded at the ordinaries along the way was 
often of the rudest and the roads for the most 
part were exceedingly rough and wild. 

The Vade Mecum for America, issued in 
1732, gives the names of all the taverns on 
the road to New York going by way of New 
London and as this was almost exactly the 
route Madam Knight followed we may 
believe that she spent her first night, after 
leaving Boston, at the Dedham ordinary, 
afterwards kept by Nathaniel Ames, the 
celebrated almanack maker. The first license 
for this tavern is dated 1658. 

The flavour of those far-away days may 
best be caught, if we follow Madam Knight's 
own crisp account of what she heard and saw 
during her trip. The journal's first date is 

23 



Among Old New England Inns 

Monday, October 2, 1704: ''About three 
o'clock afternoon, I began my Journey from 
Boston to New Haven; being about two 
Hundred Mile. My Kinsman, Capt. Robert 
Luist waited on me as farr as Dedham, 
where I was to meet ye Western post. I 
vissitted the Reverd. Mr. Belcher, Ye Min- 
ister of ye town, and tarried there till eve- 
ning, in hopes ye post would come along. 
But he not coming, I resolved to go to Bil- 
lingses where he used to lodg, being 12 miles 
further. But being ignorant of the way, 
Madm Belcher, seeing no persuasions of her 
good spouses or hers could prevail with me 
to Lodg there that night, Very kindly went 
wyth me to ye Tavern, where I hoped to get 
my guide. And desired the Hostess to inquire 
of her guests whether any of them would go 
with mee. But they being tyed by the Lipps 
to a pewter engine, scarcely allowed them- 
selves time to say what clownish . . . [Here 
half a page of the MS. is gone] . . . Pieces 
of eight, I told her no, I would not be 
accessary to such extortion. 

" Then John shan't go, sais shee. No, 
indeed shan't hee; And held forth at that 
rate a long time, that I began to fear I was 
got among the Quaking tribe, beleeving not 

24 



Madam Knight 

a Limbertong'd sister among them could out 
do Madm Hostes. 

" Upon this, to my no small surprise, son 
John arrose, and gravely demanded what I 
would give him to go with me? Give you, 
sais I, are you John? Yes, says he, for want 
of a Better; And behold this John look't as 
old as my Host, and perhaps had bin a man 
in the last Century. Well, Mr. John, sais I, 
make your demands. Why, half a pass of 
eight and a dram, sais John. I agreed, and 
gave him a Dram (now) in hand to bind 
the bargain. 

" My hostess catechis'd John for going so 
cheep, saying his poor wife would break her 
heart . . . [Here another half page of the 
MS. is gone] . . . His shade on his Hors 
resembled a Globe on a Gate post. Hiss 
habitt, Hors, and furniture, its looks and 
goings Incomparably answered the rest. 

" Thus jogging on with an easy pace, my 
Guide telling mee it was dangero's to Ride 
hard in the Night (wh his horse had the 
sence to avoid) Hee entertained me with the 
Adventures he had passed by late Rideing, 
and eminent Dangers he had escaped, so that 
remembring the Hero's in Parismus and 



n 



Among Old New England Inns 

the Knight of the Oracle, I didn't know but 
I had mett with a Prince disguis'd. 

^' When we had Ridd about an how'r, wee 
come into a thick swamp, wch, by Reason of 
a great fogg, very much startled mee, it 
being now very Dark. But nothing dismay'd 
John: Hee had encountered a thousand and 
a thousand such Swamps, having a Univer- 
sal Knowledge in the woods; and readily 
Answered all my inquiries wch were not a 
few. 

" In about an how'r, or something more, 
after we left the Swamp, we come to Bil- 
lingses, where I was to Lodg. My guide dis- 
mounted and very Complaisantly help't me 
down and shewd the door, signing me wth 
his hand to Go in; wch I Gladly did — But 
had not gone many steps into the Room, ere 
I was Interrogated by a young Lady I under- 
stood afterwards was the Eldest daughter of 
the family with these or words to this pur- 
pose, (viz) Law for mee — what in the world 
brings You here at this time a night? I 
never see a woman on the Rode so DreadfuU 
late in all the days of my versall life. Who 
are You? Where are you going? I'me 
scar'd out of my witts — with much more of 
the same Kind. I stood aghast, Prepareing 

26 



Madam Knight 

to reply, when in comes my Guide — to him 
Madam turned, Roreing out: Lawful! heart, 
John, is it You? — how de do! Where in the 
world are you going with this woman? Who 
is she? John made no Ansr. but sat down in 
the corner, fumbled out his black Junk, and 
saluted that instead of Debb ; she then turned 
agen to mee and fell anew into her silly 
questions, without asking me to sitt down. 

'' I told her she treated me very Rudely, 
and I did not think it my duty to answer her 
unmannerly Questions. But to get ridd of 
them, I told her I come there to have the 
post's company with me to-morrow on my 
Journey &c. Miss star'd awhile, drew a 
chair, bid me sitt, And then run up stairs 
and putts on two or three Rings (or else I 
had not seen them before) and reRirning, 
sett herself just before me, showing the way 
to Reding, that I might see her ornaments 
... I paid honest John wth money and dram 
according to contract and Dismist him, and 
pray'd Miss to shew me where I must Lodg. 
Shee conducted me to a parlour in a little 
back Lento wch was almost fill'd with the 
bedstead wch was so high that I was forced 
to climb on a chair to gitt up to ye wretched 
bed that lay on it; . . ." 

27 



Awiong Old New England Inns 

Varied and exciting as had been Madam 
Knight's first day it was luxurious travelling 
compared with that of the day which 
followed. At her next stopping-place she 
was served " cabage of so deep a purple " 
that she concluded the cook must have 
" boild it in her dye-kettle!" But "having 
here discharged the Ordnary for self and 
Guide (as I understood was the custom) 
About Three afternoon went on with my 
Third Guide, who Rode very hard; and hav- 
ing crossed Providence Ferry, we come to a 
River wch they Generally Ride thro'. But I 
dare not venture; so the Post got a Ladd and 
cannoo to carry me to tother side and hee 
ridd thro' and Led my hors." 

The lady's sensations in the canoe are amus- 
ingly described. "It was very small and shal- 
low, so that when we were in she seem'd redy 
to take in water which greatly terrified mee, 
and caused me to be very circumspect, sit- 
ting with my hands fast on each side, my eyes 
stedy, not daring so much as to lodg my 
tongue a hair's breadth more on one side of 
my mouth than tother, nor so much as think 
on Lott's wife, for a wry thought would 
have oversett our wherey: But was soon put 
out of this pain, by feeling the Cannoo on 

28 



Madam Knight 

shore, wch I as soon almost saluted with my 
feet; and Rewarding my sculler, again 
mounted and made the best of our way 
forwards." 

A little further on in that same day's jour- 
ney Madam Knight actually did ford a river, 
however, knowing that she must either 
^' Venture the fate of drowning, or be left 
like ye Children in the wood. So, as the Post 
bid me, I gave Reins to my Nagg; and sit- 
ting as steady as just before in the Cannoo, 
in a few minutes got safe to the other side." 
The end of this day's travel was marked '^ by 
the Post's sounding his horn, which assured 
mee hee was arrived at the Stage, where we 
were to Lodg: and that musick was then 
most musickall and agreeable to mee." 

This tavern was Haven's in what is now 
North Kingston, Rhode Island, " a clean 
comfortable house," where Madam Knight 
was promptly served with '^ Chocolett made 
with milk in a little clean brass Kettle." The 
bed " was pretty hard Yet neet and hand- 
some " and, had it not been for a topers' dis- 
pute in the adjoining kitchen, our lady trav- 
eller would have felt herself quite fortunate 
for the nonce in her fare. The next day, 
however, she was forced to ride twenty-two 

29 



Among Old New England Inns 

miles before coming to any tavern. And then 
the proprietor brusquely refused to give shel- 
ter! The name of this surly taverner was 
Davol spelled Devil in the old records. And 
Madam Knight, as we might have known, 
did not neglect the opportunity thus ofifered 
her to make sharp puns on this bad land- 
lord's name. In New London she was the 
guest of Rev. Gurdon Saltonstall, minister 
of the place, and through his good offices, 
a young gentleman, Mr. Joshua Wheeler, 
was persuaded to guide her as far as New 
Haven. Here the doughty dame informed 
herself of the manners and customs of the 
place and at the same time worked right 
diligently at the affair she had come upon. 
Some of her descriptions of Connecticut life 
in that day are very interesting: 

*' On training dayes the Youth divert them- 
selves by Shooting at the Target, as they call 
it, . . . where he that hits neerest the white 
has some yards of Red Ribbon presented 
him, wch being tied to his hattband, the two 
ends streeming down his back, he is Led away 
in Triumph, wth great applause, as the 
winners of the Olympiack Games . . . '' 
Madam Knight's study of the Connecticut 
Indians is also diverting. 

30 



Madam Knight 

After two months stay in New Haven our 
traveller resolved to push on to New York. 
" Being by this time well Recruited and 
rested after my Journy, and my business 
lying unfinished by some concerns at New 
York depending thereupon, I resolved to go 
there with my kinsman, Mr. Thomas Trow- 
bridge of New Haven and a man of the 
town who I engaged to wait on me there." 
At Rye the little party lodged '' in an ordi- 
nary wch a French family kept. Here being 
very hungry, I desired a fricasee wch the 
Frenchman undertakeing, mannaged so con- 
trary to my notion of Cookery, that I hastned 
to Bed supperless." At this house Madam 
Knight did not even have a room to herself; 
after she had laid her down on the hard bed 
provided, she heard a rustling noise nearby 
and upon inquiry found that the maid was 
" making a bed for the men " on the floor 
not far from her own couch! 

New York impressed Madam Knight as 
a less desirable place of residence than Bos- 
ton, for she found that, — even two centuries 
ago, — its inhabitants ^^ were not so strict in 
keeping the Sabbath." (At this time, too, it 
is worth noting, Boston had a population of 
ten thousand people as against New York's 

31 



Among Old New England Inns 

five thousand.) Madam Knight was herself 
a genial soul, though, and she describes with 
very evident appreciation the '' Vendues " she 
attended and the '' Riding in Sleys about 
three or four Miles out of Town where they 
have Houses of Entertainment at a place 
called the Bowery " in which she had a 
share. 

Early in January she was again in New 
Haven and now, at length, she comes to " an 
accommodation and distribution " with those 
involved with her in the settlement of the 
estate. Accordingly in February she writes 
that " the man that waited on me to New 
York taking charge of me I set out for Bos- 
ton. We went from New Haven upon the 
ice (the ferry not being passable thereby) 
. . . and went on without anything remark- 
abl till wee come to New London and I 
lodged again at Mr. Saltonstall's — and here 
I dismist my guide and my generos enter- 
tainer promised me Mr. Samuel Rogers of 
that place to go home with me. I stayed a 
day longer here than I intended by com- 
mands of the Honble Govenor Winthrop 
to stay and take supper with him whose won- 
derful civility I may not omitt. The next 
morning I Crossed ye Ferry to Groton, hav- 

32 



Madam Knight 

ing had the Honor of the Company of 
Madam Livingston (who is the Govenors 
Daughter) . . . and divers others to the boat 
— And that night Lodgd at Stonington and 
had Rost Beef and pumpkin sause for sup- 
per. The next night at Haven's and had 
Rost Fowle! " Haven's appears to have been 
well named. 

It was on March third that Madam 
Knight '' got safe home to Boston," having 
been nearly a fortnight on the road. No 
wonder her " Kind relations and friends " 
flocked in to welcome her and hear the story 
of her " transactions and travails." She had 
been away five months in all and that in a 
day when men, much less women, scarcely 
ever travelled the 271 miles which the Vade 
Mecum gives as the post route to New York. 
Nothing but verse could adequately express 
her emotions so she wrote on the window- 
pane of her room: 

" Now I've returned to Sarah Knight's 
Thro' many toils and many frights 
Over great rocks and many stones 
God has presar'vd from fracter'd bones." 

Hazardous and exhausting as had been 
this journey to New London it by no means 

33 



Among Old New England Inns 

discouraged Sarah Knight, however. For 
when her only daughter Elizabeth married, 
some eight years later, the Colonel John 
Livingston " whose first wife was the Gov- 
enors Daughter " our traveller again made 
her way to the Connecticut town, where she 
successively speculated in Indian lands, man- 
aged a shop, cultivated a farm and, — last 
but not least, — kept a tavern. She bought 
her Norwich property in 1717 and the year 
following she was, with others, brought 
before Richard Bushnell, Justice of the 
Peace, for selling strong drink to the Indians. 
She tried to shift the blame of the liquor- 
selling upon her maid, Ann Clark, but refus- 
ing to acquit herself by swearing that Ann 
was solely to blame, she was sentenced to pay 
a fine of twenty shillings. All the while, 
however, Madam Knight was moving in good 
society in Norwich, and writing what was 
called poetry for the edification of her select 
circle of friends. 

In 1722 she moved to the Livingston farm 
on the west side of the road from Norwich 
to New London and opened there a '^ place 
of entertainment for travellers " where she 
lived until her death September 25, 1727, in 
the sixty-second year of her age. She lies 

34 



Madam Knight 

buried in the New London cemetery. The 
famous Diary was preserved in the family of 
Christopher Christophers of New London, 
whose wife, Sarah, inherited it, among other 
effects, from Madam Livingston, who was 
Sarah Knight's daughter. Later it passed, by 
inheritance, into the possession of Mrs. Icha- 
bod Wetmore of Middletown, Connecticut, 
who allowed its publication in 1825 under 
the supervision of Theodore Dwight of New 
York. Reviewers generally regarded it, 
when first given to the world, as a clever 
forgery and it was classed in libraries as 
fiction. Now, however, it is highly prized 
as an authentic picture of early New Eng- 
land and its author is widely acclaimed one 
of the most interesting characters of her 
time. 



35 



CHAPTER III 

THE FATHER OF THE TURNPIKE AND SOME 
RELATED TAVERNS 

The first post-road to New York, over 
which Madam Knight travelled in 1704, 
went by the way of Providence, Stonington, 
New London and the shore of Long Island 
Sound, a distance of two hundred and fifty- 
five miles. Just eighty years after that 
doughty dame's journey, Captain Levi Pease 
put on a regular stage between Boston and 
Hartford and the beginning of systematic 
communication between Boston and New 
York was established. Pease was a Connect- 
icut man (born in Enfield in 1740) but after 
his marriage he removed to Massachusetts, 
and it is with a little Massachusetts town, 
Shrewsbury, near Worcester, that his fame 
is most intimately bound up. Shrewsbury, 
moreover, is particularly interesting to us 
because, at the time Pease started his stage 
route, there were no less than three noted 

36 



/ 



i 



The Father of the Turnpike 

taverns in the place, — Farrar's, Baldwin's 
and Howe's. 

Farrar's Tavern is now better known as 
the Pease Tavern for the reason that the 
" Father of the Turnpike " eventually came 
to be its landlord. But Major John Farrar, 
an army officer of considerable distinction, 
was in charge during the Revolution and 
during the visit made to the village in 1789 
by General Washington while on his way to 
Boston. For all travellers to and from the 
New England capital the house was a pop- 
ular resort, for it stood on the corner formed 
by the junction of the " great road " with the 
road to Westboro', about one mile from the 
Northboro' line, right in the current of 
travel. Very likely, therefore, it was at this 
tavern that John Adams overheard in 1774 
the conversation which, tavern-hater though 
he was, so impressed him that he set it down 
with scarcely concealed pleasure: "Within 
the course of the year, before the meeting of 
Congress in 1774, on a journey to some of 
our circuit courts in Massachusetts, I stopped 
one night at a tavern in Shrewsbury about 
forty miles from Boston, and as I was cold 
and wet, I sat down at a good fire in the bar- 



37 



Among Old New England Inns 

room to dry my greatcoat and saddlebags till 
a fire could be made in my chamber. 

^' There presently came in, one after 
another, half a dozen or half a score substan- 
tial yeomen of the neighborhood, who, 
sitting down to the fire, after lighting their 
pipes, began a lively conversation on politics. 
As I believed I was unknown to them all, I 
sat in total silence to hear them. One said: 
^ The people of Boston are distracted.' An- 
other answered: 'No wonder the people of 
Boston are distracted. Oppression will make 
wise men mad.' A third said: ' What would 
you say if a fellow should come to your 
house and tell you he was going to make a 
list of your cattle, that Parliament might tax 
you for them at so much a head? And how 
should you feel if he was to go and break 
open your barn to take down your oxen, 
cows, horses and sheep?' 'What would I 
say? ' replied the first, ' I would knock him 
in the head.' ' Well,' said a fourth, ' if Par- 
liament can take away Mr. Hancock's wharf 
and Mr. Rowe's wharf, they can take away 
your barn and my house.' 

" After much more reasoning in this style, 
a fifth, who had as yet been silent, broke out: 
' Well, it's high time for us to rebel ; we 

38 



The Father of the Turnpike 

must rebel some time or other, and we had 
better rebel now than at any time to come. 
If we put if off for ten or twenty years, and 
let them go on as they have begun, they will 
get a strong party among us, and plague us a 
great deal more than they can now. As yet 
they have but a small party on their side.' " 
With such talk as this stirring in Shrews- 
bury it is not to be wondered at that the town 
produced one of the most effective leaders of 
the Revolutionary War, General Artemas 
Ward. Ward was born in 1727 in the house 
afterwards known as the Baldwin Tavern, 
which his father had built two years before 
and which passed in 1755 into the possession 
of Henry Baldwin of Pelham, New Hamp- 
shire. Only a heap of stones now marks the 
site of Baldwin's tavern but it was in its day 
a fine house and a very noted resort. We 
cannot do better than linger for a little while 
over its traditions. One of these concerns 
a murder committed here on a certain night 
by a traveller who had taken a room with 
his ill-starred victim. In the morning the 
guilty party had fled but the hideous blood- 
stains on the bedstead testified that the dead 
man on the floor had met his end only after 
a terrible struggle. 

39 



Among Old New England Inns 

One habitue of this tavern was old Grimes 
of Hubbardston, immortalized by Albert G. 
Green in a curious poem which praises more 
ingeniously than honestly a somewhat dis- 
reputable character. For Grimes was the 
kind of man who could, and did, ride his 
horse straight into the tap-room of the Bald- 
win Tavern in case he was too unsteady, — 
as not infrequently happened, — to dismount 
outside. The poem, however, with its curi- 
ous division of theme, (the first two lines of 
each stanza refer, it will be noted, to the 
man's character and the last two to his 
clothing) is interesting enough to be quoted 
in full: 

OLD GRIMES 

Old Grimes is dead, that good old man, 

We ne'er shall see him more; 
He used to wear a long blue coat 

All buttoned down before. 

His heart was open as the day, 

His feelings all were true; 
His hair was some inclined to gray 

He wore it in a queue. 

Whene'er he heard the voice of pain. 

His heart with pity burned ; 
The large round head upon his cane 

From ivory was turned. 
40 



The Father of the Turnpike 

Kind words he ever had for all, 

He knew no fell design; 
His eyes were dark and rather small 

His nose was aquiline. 

He Hved at peace with all mankind, 

In friendship he was true; 
His coat had pocket-holes behind, 

His pantaloons were blue. 

Unharmed, the sin which earth pollutes 

He passed serenely o*er; 
And never wore a pair of boots 

For thirty years or more. 

But good old Grimes is now at rest 
Nor fears misfortune's frown; 

He wore a double-breasted vest, 
The stripes ran up and down. 

He modest merit sought to find 

And pay it its desert; 
He had no malice in his mind 

No ruffles on his shirt. 

His worldly goods he never threw 
In trust to Fortune's dances, 

But lived ( as all his brothers do ) 
In easy circumstances. 

His neighbours he did not abuse 

Was sociable and gay; 
He wore large buckles on his shoes 

And changed them every day. 

4^ 



Among Old New England Inns 

His knowledge hid from public gaze, 

He did not bring to view; 
Nor make a noise town-meeting days, 

As many people do. 

Thus undisturbed by anxious cares. 

His peaceful moments ran; 
And everybody said he was 

A fine old gentleman. 

If, however, you would have fact instead 
of poetry concerning old Grimes, see the 
History of Hubbardston. For he was no 
fictitious character; the ancient roof-tree on 
the Gardner road with which he is identified 
has burned down within the past six months. 

After the Baldwins, father and son, had 
passed to their rewards, the tavern bearing 
their name came into the possession of Cap- 
tain Aaron Smith, one of the Shrewsbury 
men who had fought at Bunker Hill and who 
afterwards followed Lafayette. When the 
Marquis came to Worcester in 1824 Aaron 
Smith, then in his eighty-ninth year, marched 
from his home to greet his old commander 
and present to him an elegant cane which he 
had carved from a grape-vine brought from 
the Jerseys. It is, however, with Captain 
Smith's share in the Shays Rebellion that the 

42 



The Father of the Turnpike 

principal interest of his career lies for us. 
For it was in the court-yard of his tavern 
that the rebellious ones had their rendezvous 
and from that spot they hurled defiance at 
Judge Ward who then lived in the house 
directly opposite. 

This insurrectionary movement was nur- 
tured in Conkey's tavern, Pelham, by Cap- 
tain Daniel Shays, an adventurous soul who 
lived within half a mile of that hostelry 
(built in 1758) and so found it very conve- 
nient to develop there a plan for resisting 
what seemed to him the tyranny of the judges. 
Shays saw, as did many another, that the 
people had been made very poor by the 
enormous expense attending the Revolu- 
tionary War. And as imprisonments multi- 
plied for debts which there was small hope 
of ever being able to pay he conceived the 
notion of stopping all court action and so 
setting matters right. He had brooded too 
long, among his lonely Pelham hills, upon 
sufferings which only time and patience 
could remove; and these broodings, rein- 
forced by a consciousness of power and 
inflamed by the drinks served before Land- 
lord Conkey's blazing fire combined to make 
him a rebel of thoroughly dangerous type. 

43 



Ainong Old New England Inns 

His following was confined very largely to 
Worcester county and among his men were 
many from Shrewsbury. Captain Aaron 
Smith rallied his old soldiers in response to 
Shays' command, and several others, who had 
fought in the Revolutionary War under Gen- 
eral Ward, now took up arms against their 
old neighbour and commander, solely because 
he was the representative of the majesty of 
the law. 

It took real courage to defy these desperate 
men when they presented themselves at the 
court-house steps and with drawn swords and 
fixed bayonets forbade Judge Ward to go 
about his business. Lincoln's History of 
Worcester credits the usually silent judge 
with a magnificent burst of eloquence as the 
bayonets of his former soldiers penetrated 
his clothing. He told them that ^' he did 
not value their bayonets ; they might plunge 
them into his heart; but while that heart 
beat he would do his duty; when opposed 
to it his life was of little consequence; if 
they would take away their bayonets and 
give him some position where he could be 
heard by his fellow-citizens and not by the 
leaders alone who had deceived and deluded 
them, he would speak but not otherwise." 

44 



The Father of the Turnpike 

Struck with admiration for their old com- 
mander's courage the bayonets were with- 
drawn and then, with great fervour and 
irresistible logic, Judge Ward proceeded to 
reason with the people, showing them that, 
though their grievances were not to be 
denied, they had taken an utterly wrong way 
to relieve them. His hearers were not a little 
impressed and they finally allowed Judge 
Ward to go in peace. Then, the Court 
having adjourned to a certain day in Jan- 
uary, those under arms marched back to their 
headquarters in front of the Baldwin Tavern. 
Here, ere long, the militia found them out 
and dispersed them, sadder and wiser men, 
Shays having already left his followers to 
hide himself in obscurity. 

Still another tavern, — in Fitchburg, Mas- 
sachusetts, — is interestingly connected with 
the Shays Rebellion. This, the present home 
of Mrs. S. A. Fairbanks, was then known as 
the Upton Tavern and officers were in pur- 
suit of rebels who fled there for protection. 
But the servants of the law did not find their 
men for they neglected to examine sufficiently 
the crooked little closet under the stairs in 
the front hall. 

The Shays Rebellion crisis in Shrewsbury's 

45 



Among Old New Engla7td Inns 

history was in 1787, — and Levi Pease's 
coach had for four years now been tooling 
through the village. It took great faith in 
the value of the enterprise to run empty 
wagons to Hartford and back as was done 
for some little time, but Pease had performed 
many hard things before and so knew how. 
During the Revolution he had often carried 
important messages at great peril of his life; 
it is related of him that on many a moonlight 
night he lay on his back and paddled his 
boat with his hands lest he be betrayed to 
some suspicious eyes. So he was just the man 
to start our first stage line. For money he 
turned to his friend Reuben Sykes, who had 
previously driven a stage with him from 
Somers to Hartford, — a distance of twenty 
miles, — and on October 20th, 1783, at six 
o'clock in the morning. Pease started from 
Boston, as did Sykes from Hartford, in " two 
convenient wagons " ! Each made the allotted 
trip in four days, the fare being ten dollars 
each way, and the transfer from Pease's 
coach to Sykes' being effected at Spencer, 
the highest point between Boston and Spring- 
field. So successful did the enterprise soon 
grow to be that Pease became the owner of 



The Father of the Turnpike 

a Boston inn, on the spot where St. Paul's 
church now stands. 

Still it was hard travelling in those earliest 
days if we may trust Josiah Quincy. " I set 
out from Boston," he says, " in the line of 
stages lately established by an enterprising 
Yankee, Pease by name, which in that day 
was considered a method of transportation of 
wonderful expedition. The journey to New 
York took up a week. The carriages were 
old and shackling, and much of the harness 
made of ropes. One pair of horses carried 
the stage eighteen miles. We generally 
reached our resting-place for the night, if no 
accident intervened, at ten o'clock and after 
a frugal supper went to bed with a notice 
that we should be called at three the next 
morning, which generally proved to be half- 
past two. Then, whether it snowed or 
rained, the traveller must rise and make 
ready by the help of a horn lantern and a 
farthing candle, and proceed on his way over 
bad roads, . . . Thus we travelled, eighteen 
miles a stage, sometimes obliged to get out 
and help the coachman lift the coach out of 
a quagmire or rut, and arrived at New York 
after a week's hard travelling, wondering at 
the ease as well as expedition of our journey." 

47 



Among Old New England Inns 

Captain Pease was not a man to endure 
poor roads if he could help it, however, and 
so with his usual enterprise and energy he 
soon set on foot a movement which resulted 
in the first Massachusetts turnpike, laid out 
in 1808 from Boston to Worcester through 
South Shrewsbury. Much earlier than this 
he had bought better horses and more com- 
fortable wagons, so that he was able to adver- 
tise in the Massachusetts Spy or the Worces- 
ter Gazette, under date of January 5, 1786: 

'' Stages from Portsmouth in New Hamp- 
shire to Savannah in Georgia. 

'' There is now a line of Stages established 
from New Hampshire to Georgia, which go 
and return regularly, and carry the several 
Mails, by order and permission of Con- 
gress. 

" The stages from Boston to Hartford in 
Connecticut set out during the winter season, 
from the home of Levi Pease, at the Sign of 
the New York Stage, opposite the Mall, in 
Boston, every Monday and Thursday morn- 
ing precisely at five o'clock, go as far as 
Worcester on the evenings of those days and 
on the days following proceed to Palmer, 
and on the third day reach Hartford; the 
first Stage reaches the city of New York on 

48 



The Father of the Turnpike 

Saturday evening, and the other on the 
Wednesday evening following. 

" The stages from New York for Boston 
set out on the same days, and reach Hartford 
at the same time as the Boston stages. 

" The stages from Boston exchange pas- 
sengers with the stages from Hartford at 
Spencer, and the Hartford Stages exchange 
with those from New York at Hartford. 
Passengers are again exchanged at Stratford 
Ferry and not again until their arrival at 
New York. 

" By the present regulation of the stages, 
it is certainly the most convenient and expe- 
ditious way of travelling that can possibly 
be had in America, and in order to make it 
the cheapest, the proprietors of the stages 
have lowered their price from fourpence to 
three pence a mile, with liberty to passengers 
to carry fourteen pounds baggage. 

" In the summer season the stages are to 
run with the mail three times in a week 
instead of twice in the winter, by which 
means those who take passage at Boston in 
the stage which sets off on Monday morn- 
ing, may arrive at New York on the Thurs- 
day evening following, and all the mails 
during that season are to be but four days 

49 



Among Old New England Inns 

going from Boston to New York, and so from 
New York to Boston. 

^' Those who intend taking passage in the 
stages must leave their names and baggage 
the evening preceding the morning that the 
stage sets off, at the several places where the 
stage puts up, and pay one-half of their pas- 
sage to the place where the first exchange 
of passengers is made, if bound so far, and 
if not, one-half of their passage so far as they 
are bound. 

" N. B. Way passengers will be accom- 
modated, when the stages are not full, at the 
same rate, viz. three pence only per mile. 

"Said PEASE keeps good lodging &C 
for gentlemen travellers, and stabling for 
horses." 

Before he could afford the high rents of 
Boston, Shrewsbury was the centre of all this 
activity on Levi Pease's part. The Farrar 
Tavern came into his possession in 1794 and 
here he brought his family to live. In the 
northeast room upstairs the Free Masons 
held their meetings, — according to Miss 
Ward's very delightful " Old Times in 
Shrewsbury," — and the room is still called 
the " Masons' Room." Across the passage 
is what was formerly a dancing hall divided 

SO 



The Father of the Turnpike 

in the middle by a swing partition which 
could be raised and lowered at pleasure. 
Behind the house, in its salad days, was a 
large open shed for the protection of loaded 
wagons and, near-by, another shed contain- 
ing benches and chairs where the teamsters 
were served. Under this shed, in the side of 
the house, slight holes were cut, one above 
the other to a window in the second story. 
These holes were large enough to hold on 
by and to admit the toe of a man's boot. 
Thus, by dexterous use of hands and feet, the 
men who must rise at cock-crow could let 
themselves out of the house without disturb- 
ing the members of the family. 

The Exchange Hotel, still standing in 
Worcester and still used as a public house, 
was the Worcester office for Pease's stage 
line. Built in 1784 it was originally owned 
by Colonel Reuben Sykes, Pease's partner, 
and was called successively, the United States 
Arms, Sykes's Coffee House, and Sykes's 
Stage House. Washington stopped here for 
breakfast in 1789 when, says the chronicler, 
^^ he politely passed through town on horse- 
back. He was dressed in a brown suit and 
pleasure glowed in every countenance as he 
came along." Here it was, too, that Lafay- 



Among Old New England Inns 

ette was staying on that occasion when Cap- 
tain Aaron Smith tramped in from Shrews- 
bury and was affectionately embraced by his 
old-time commander. 

In 1799 a company was formed to extend 
the turnpike from Worcester to Amherst. 
Thus was a new chain of taverns brought 
into the service. At Amherst the star house 
of the town was the predecessor on the same 
site of the present Amherst House. Ever 
since 1757 there has been a tavern on this 
spot, the first in the series being kept by 
David Parsons. His son, Gideon Parsons, 
Joel Dickinson, Solomon Boltwood and Eli- 
jah Boltwood were successively landlords, 
the last-named ranking for some thirty-odd 
years as one of the most genial publicans of 
Western Massachusetts. The registers in his 
day bore the names of many men of national 
and some of international fame, while in 
front of the fire at night sat doctors of divin- 
ity, learned lawyers, members of the General 
Court and of Congress. So gifted in his 
profession was " Uncle Elijah," however, 
that people of every station felt equally at 
home under his hospitable roof. 

The tavern in his day was a two-story 
yellow building with a tap-room occupying 

52 



The Father of the Turnpike 

the entire front. On the second floor was a 
ball-room, arched overhead and extending 
to the roof. Here dinners of ceremony were 
served and old-time assemblies held. From 
a stout post in front of the house was sus- 
pended an imposing sign of a lion. About 
1 82 1, when Amherst College was established 
the wooden building was torn down and a 
handsome brick structure (which stood until 
1879) entertained travellers in its stead. In 
1838 Harvey Rockwood became the propri- 
etor, — and the Boltwood Tavern was super- 
seded by the Amherst House, — as the stage 
line had already been superseded by the 
railroad. 



53 



CHAPTER IV 

GUBERNATORIAL AND OTHER TAVERN JUNKETS 

After writing the title of this chapter it 
occurred to me to look up the etymology of 
" junket '^ and see why the term consorts so 
naturally with adjectives like " gubernato- 
rial," and " aldermanic." I found that the 
noun was originally spelled juncate, from the 
Italian giuncata, cheese; and that, from 
denoting a cheesecake in the time of Johnson 
it came to mean delicate food when used by 
Milton and to be spelled ]\xnket and describe 
" an entertainment by stealth " when em- 
ployed by Swift. Now, though there is no 
evidence that the entertainments of which 
this chapter is to speak were conducted by 
stealth, it certainly is true that a great deal 
of the patronage by which the old-time tav- 
erns waxed rich came in connection with 
official business and was paid for by the 
public money. It is fairly clear, too, from 
the protests one meets in the pages of colonial 

54 



Gubernatorial and other Tavern Junkets 

history, that a disproportionate amount was 
often felt to be spent upon these entertain- 
ments. So we will let our title stand; it may 
serve to illuminate the real character of cer- 
tain official expeditions even now under way. 

About one hundred and seventy years ago 
there was a very famous junket from Boston 
to the western part of the Bay Province in 
order that the Council of Governor Jonathan 
Belcher might consult with the Indians of 
that section. An account of this trip which 
called itself " A Diary of Surpassing Inter- 
est " was published and because the thing is 
very rare and shows that our junket really 
had in it the elements of '' a stolen entertain- 
ment " I herewith reproduce it. The tour 
must have been a great occasion at the several 
taverns where the official party halted for 
refreshments and to tarry over the night. 
Hardly a single one of the public houses 
here referred to is standing to-day though 
the names of several of the landlords will be 
familiar to readers of this book. 

'^ On Wednesday morning, August 20th, 
1735, about six o'clock," says the diary, " his 
Excellency, attended by a number of gentle- 
men, set out from Boston on a journey to 
Deerfield, about 120 miles. We got to 

55 



Among Old New England Inns 

Larned's at Watertown \ after seven, 9 miles. 
Set out at 8 for Sudbury thro. Weston, got 
there at \ hour after 9, 1 1 miles-20-, Set out 
again at 12, got to Colonel Woods at Marl- 
borough \ ^^ter I, 10 miles. Set out at J 
after 2, got to Colonel Ward's at Shrews- 
bury, about 4, 10 miles. Set out at 5 to Col. 
Chandler's at Worcester about 5 miles, 25- 

20 
25 

First day 45 miles 

" 2 1 St, Thursday i o'clock P. M. set out from 
Worcester, got to Leicester about 28 minutes 
after 2, 6 miles. Set out about 3 for Brook- 
field, got to a house in Brookfield about 4, 
8 miles. Set out about \ hour after, got to 
Col. Dwights at Brookfield a little before 6, 
8 miles. 

6 

8 

8 

Second day 22 miles. 

" 22nd. Friday about 8 set out from Brook- 
field for Cold Spring, got to Capta. Lyman's 
about \ hour after 11, 15 miles, set out 
about \ after 2 for Hadley, got there about 

56 



Gubernatorial and Other Tavern Junkets 

\ after 5, 15 miles, got to Col. Stoddard's at 
Northampton over the Ferry about Sunset, 
3 miles. 

15 45 

15 22 

3 33 

Third day 33 100 miles. 

" 23rd. Saturday. Sabbath Day, tarryM at 
Northampton. 

" 25th. Monday morning about 10 o'clock 
a clock set out from Northamton for Hat- 
field, got to Captain Williams about 11, 5 
miles, Set out at 2 for Deerfield, got there 
about \ after 4. 15 miles, Monday 20 miles. 

" 26th. Tuesday tarry'd at Deerfield. 
Deerfield 20 miles. 

" 27th. Wednesday at Deerfield. There 
was a Tent erected of about 100 foot long, 
where the Govr dined with the rest of the 
Gentlemen, & where in the afternoon the 
Tribe of the Caguarogas (or French Mo- 
hawks) was sent for, & after the usual 
Salutation & Conference, they were dismist. 

" 28th. Thursday at Deerfield. The same 
was Gone [through] to the Housetonacks, 
& to the Sattacooks & Mohegans together, 
in the forenoon. In the afternoon the Mo- 

,S7 



Among Old New England Inns 

hawks were sent for again, & had a con- 
ference. It lasted about an hour & an half. 

^^ 29th. Friday at Deerfield. The Housa- 
tonnocks were sent for, & had a conference, 
it lasted about an hour & an half, (in the 
forenoon.) Then the Mohawks were sent 
for, received their Presents after a short 
Conference, & dined with the Governor & 
Gentlemen in the Tent. & after Dinner the 
Govr took his Leave of them. 

^^ 30th. Saturday at Deerfield. The Hou- 
satonnocks were sent for & after some Con- 
ference received their Presents, & were 
Dismist. Then the Scattacooks were sent 
for & in like manner received their Pres- 
ents, the Mohegans received theirs after 
Dinner without any further Conference. 
These three Tribes dined with the Governor. 

"31st. Sabbath Day at Deerfield. In the 
forenoon the Revd. Mr. Sargent was ordained 
to preach the Gospel to the Tribe of the 
Housetonnock Indians. The Revd Mr. Ash- 
ley of Deerfield began with Prayer, the Revd 
Mr. Appleton of Cambridge preached 2 
Tim: 2: 21. 'If a man therefore purge 
himself from these he shall be a Vessell unto 
Honour, sanctified & meet for the Master's 
Use & prepared unto every good work.' The 

58 



Gubernatorial and Other Tavern Junkets 

Revd Mr. Williams of Hatfield gave the 
charge, & the Revd Mr. Williams of Spring- 
field the right hand of Fellowship. In the 
afternoon the Rev Mr. Williams of Spring- 
field preached from Is. ii., 4: ^ And he shall 
judge among the nations and shall rebuke 
many peoples and they shall beat their swords 
into ploughshares & their Spears into Pru- 
ning Hooks.' 

"September ist Monday between 11 & 12 
we set out from Deerfield for Fort Dummer, 
got their about 5, 25 miles. 

Monday 25 miles. 
Fort Dummer 145 miles. 

" 2nd Tuesday we set out from Fort Dum- 
mer a little after 8, ferried across the River, 
got to Ensign Field's at Northfield about 11, 
13 miles, set out from thence about \ hour 
after 12, got to a River where we stopt, about 
2, 10 miles, set out at \ hour after, got to Mr. 
Rand's at Sunderland \ after 4, 12 miles, set 
out at 5, got to Kelloggs at Hadley Ferry, \ 
after 6, 10. 

13 

10 

12 

10 
Tuesday 45 miles. 

59 



Among Old New England Inns 

" The Gover. & others went over the Ferry 
to Northampton I lodged at Hadley, got to 
Col. Stoddards over the Ferry about 8 next 
morning, 3 miles. 

^'3rd Wednesday set out from Northamp- 
ton about 9, got to Lieut. Ingerson's at West- 
field \ hour after 12, 17 miles. Set out for 
Springfield about 3, got to Springfield Ferry 
about 4, 6 miles; crossed the River, got to 
Mr. Sherriff Marshfield's J after 4, i mile, 
7 miles. 

7 

Wednesday 24 miles. 

" 4th Thursday we set out from Springfield 
about ten o'clock, got to Scots' at the Elbow 
at I, 15 miles, set out about \ hour after 2, 
got to Col. Dwight's at Brookfield J hour 
after 5, 15 miles. 

Thursday 30 miles. 

" 5th Friday, we set out from Brookfield 
about \ hour after 7, got to Leicester about 
\ before 11, 16 miles. Set out about \ after, 

60 



Gubernatorial and Other Tavern Junkets 

got to Col. Chandlers at Worcester about \ 
after 12, 6 miles. 

16 

6 

22 miles. 

" set out \ hour after 2, got to Col. Ward's at 
Shrewsbury about \ before 4, 7 miles, set out 
about \ hour after 4, got to Col. Woods at 
Marlborough about 6, 

10 
22 
10 

39 
Friday about 4 miles. 

"6th Saturday we set out from Marlbor- 
ough \ after 7, got to Sudbury at 9, 10 miles; 
set out at II, got to Larned's at Watertown \ 
before i, 11 miles, set out \ after 2, got to 
Boston at 4, 9 miles. 

10 

II 

9 

Saturday 30 miles." 

There are several places named in the 
61 



Among Old New England Inns 

journal upon which it may be well to 
remark. The house of Colonel Dwight was 
upon Foster's Hill in Brookfield. It was 
purchased, not many years ago, by the Qua- 
boag Historical Society and measures were 
being taken to have it put into good repair 
when, one night, it burned to the ground. 

Governor Belcher, in whose honour the 
Cold Spring here referred to was afterwards 
called Belchertown, had been in office several 
years at the time of this junket and was highly 
regarded by the people in spite of the fact 
that there was some opposition to him among 
the so-called favoured classes. In 1742 he 
was removed from his office in Massachu- 
setts but was soon appointed governor of the 
province of New Jersey, where he was wel- 
comed with open arms and did much to help 
Jonathan Edwards,^ — in whose ^' Great 
Awakening " he had been deeply interested, 
— put Princeton University on its feet. The 
" Sabbath day " that the party " tarried at 
Northampton " was doubtless spent in hear- 
ing Edwards preach. 

As for the errand which occasioned the 
junket: it had to do with a very real griev- 
ance of the Indians. Land speculators were 

* See " Romance of Old New England Churches." 

62 




DWIGHT HOUSE, BROOKFIELD 




FRARY HOUSE, DEERFIELD 



Gubernatorial and Other Tavern Junkets 

crowding them close and there was need that 
a judicial-minded body should listen to their 
story and do what they could to adjust 
matters. 

Almost forty years earlier another famous 
case had been tried in this very locality by 
a junketing party from Boston. The house 
with which that trip is associated was later 
a tavern and, fortunately for us, is still stand- 
ing. It is called the Frary House and is now 
owned by Miss C. Alice Baker, a descendant 
of Samson Frary, whose name the place 
bears. 

The older part of the Frary House was 
built in 1689, the other half being added in 
1748 when the whole house was used as a 
tavern. The spacious dancing hall of the 
place, which is thirty-three feet long and 
proportionately wide, was the scene of many 
a festive gathering in those tavern days and 
its spring floor still responds, at Miss Baker's 
private parties, to the impetus of the " light 
fantastic toe." Gaiety had no share, how- 
ever, in the visit of officials that now concerns 

U9. 

Back in the earliest days of the house it 
was the home of some simple people in whose 
family there lived a young serving-woman, 

63 



Among Old New England Inns 

Sarah Smith. Through this young woman 
the place is associated with one of those 
horrible child-murders occasionally to be 
found in New England history. 

Though Sarah Smith pleaded not guilty 
to the charge of murdering her illegitimate 
baby the jury of twelve men, — Joseph Par- 
sons, foreman, — decided against her and, 
Justice Winthrop having condemned her to 
hang on the following Thursday, such pun- 
ishment was duly meted out to her. In 
accordance with the custom of the times Rev. 
John Williams preached a sermon before her 
on the day of the execution. But his words 
appear to have made no very profound im- 
pression upon her, for her ghost is said to 
have long haunted the house in which she 
committed her crime. Up to forty years ago 
it appeared with remarkable regularity, I 
am told. 

Possibly, however, the apparition con- 
nected with the place really owes its origin 
to some unrecorded crime done during the 
days when the house was a tavern. Certainly 
the place has age enough to have survived 
several murders. 

Its first Boniface was Salah Barnard who 
in 1763 bought it from David Arms for 

64 



Gubernatorial and Other Tavern Junkets 

£175. His son Erastus was a tavern keeper 
also, pursuing this business until 181 5. Miss 
Baker bought the estate May 24, 1890 and 
had the old house thoroughly restored. It 
enjoys the distinction of being the oldest 
house in Deerfield. 

Governor Endicott's peregrinations were 
most laudably free from extravagance. The 
bills presented on his account by Joseph 
Armitage, who kept the tavern just half-way 
between Boston and Salem and therefore 
came in for considerable patronage from per- 
sons having business before the Courts of 
Essex County, were always modest. " From 
the Court of election 1651 till the end of 
October 1651 the governers Expenses" were: 

" to beare and cacks 6 d 
beare & cacks to himself and some other 

gentlemen I s 2 d 

beare and cacks with Mr. Downing i s 6 d 

beare & a cack 6 d 



3s8d" 

The lesser lights in the official train were 
not so abstemious for during the same period 
they ran up a bill for a considerably larger 
amount. 

6s 



Among Old New England Inns 

" to the Sargeants from the end of the 
Court of elections 1651 till the end of Oc- 
tober 1 65 1. 

bear and cacks i s 2 d 

for vitalls beare and logen 5 s 
to Benjamin Scarlet the Governors man 8 d 

bear & vittells 2 s 

to the Sargents i s 9 d 

beear & cacks i s 
to a man that Carried a letter to warne 

a Court about the dutchmen i s 6 d 

to the Sargeants i s 2 d 



14s 3d" 

These bills were ordered to be paid in the 
following form: 

'^ Mr. Auditer I pray you give a note to 
Mr. Treasurer for the payment of 17s iid 
according to these two bills of Joseph Armi- 
tage. Date the 7th of the 11 mo 1651. 

Jo Endicott." 

But these gubernatorial and other junkets 
were not always promptly paid for and this 
fact accounts for the preservation of many 
old-time tavern bills that, in the ordinary 

66 



Gubernatorial and Other Tavern Junkets 

course of things, would have perished long 
ago. Armitage, for instance, had been for 
some years retired from the duties of tavern- 
keeper, when being in money difficulties, he 
attempted to collect a bill long overdue in 
the following petition: 

" To the Honered Court now sitting at 
Salem: The Humble pitition of Joseph 
Armitage, Humbly sheweth that in the time 
that I kept Ordinary there was some expences 
at my Hows by some of the Honored magis- 
trates & Deputys of this County as apears by 
the bills charged upon the Auditer Generall, 
which I never Receaved. 

" Therefor your Humbell petticionir doth 
humbly request this Court that they would 
give me an order to the County Treasurer 
for my pay & so your poure petitioner shall 
ever pray for your prosperity 

Joseph Armitage/' 

Armitage's previous calling, — that of a 
tailor, — ought to have given him wide expe- 
rience in collecting bad debts, but evidently 
he had not profited by the teachings of adver- 
sity for he was continually involved in pecu- 
niary difficulties. His successor at this Lynn 

67 



Among Old New England Inns 

"Anchor" was much more prosperous; 
though he made his house popular he col- 
lected money owed him and for forty years 
flourished as a tavern-keeper, — and other- 
wise. Thomas Marshall, for so this func- 
tionary was named, arrived in Lynn from 
London in the latter part of 1635 and, soon 
after, became a freeman of the colony. When 
Cromwell went into the business of saving 
England, Marshall felt a call to help him, 
and returning to the mother country sat on 
the right hand of the Lord Protector, — if 
his own statements can be relied upon. At 
any rate he had a '^ captain " before his name 
and the lustre of military glory all over it 
when he came back to Lynn after the war, 
eager to discuss with any traveller who would 
listen to him, his experiences while with 
Oliver. John Dunton promised to be a good 
victim when he passed that way in 1686, but 
Captain Marshall did not succeed in holding 
him long. If there was boasting to be done 
Dunton wanted to do it himself. He has 
left us this account of his call at the Anchor: 
" About two of the clock I reached Capt. 
Marshall's house which is half-way between 
Boston and Salem; here I staid to refresh 
nature with a pint of sack and a good fowl. 

68 



Gubernatorial and Other Tavern Junkets 

Capt. Marshall is a hearty old gentleman, 
formerly one of Oliver's soldiers, upon which 
he very much values himself. He had all the 
history of the civil war at his fingers end 
and if we may believe him Oliver did hardly 
anything that was considerable without his 
assistance, and if I'd have staid as long as 
he'd have talked, he'd have spoiled my ram- 
ble at Salem." 

Executions were great junket occasions at 
the old-time tavern for the gallows often 
stood very near the public house and our 
Puritan forbears had no qualms about send- 
ing to '^ everlasting punishment " one who 
had been proved guilty of crime. Apropos 
of the grewsome structure near what was 
long known as Porter's Tavern, Cambridge, 
one satiric rhymster wrote: 

" Cambridge is a famous town. 
Both for wit and knowledge, 
Some they whip and some they hang. 
And some they send to college." 

An especially gala day in the University 
City was September i8, 1755, thus cheerfully 
described by a Boston gentleman who had 
just seen a negro woman burnt for com- 

69 



Among Old New England Inns 

plicity in the murder of her master: '' Exe- 
cution day a clear but for the time of year a 
Cold day about i o'clock sat out for Cam- 
bridge saw ye execution Mark hanged and 
Phillis burnt then to Bradishes, & then to 
morses drank some punch with Mr. Moreley 
Tom Leverett Mr. Cooper Tom foxcroft 
Ned Emerson & others & walked down with 
Jonathan Bradish and then to mr. Moreleys 
house tarried till ten supped & refreshed 
nature sufficiently and then went home and 
went to bed & slept woke up very finely 
refreshed." The sermon that accompanied 
this occasion was preached by the Rev. Mr. 
Appleton on the appropriate text " The Way 
of the Transgressor is Hard." 

Those old-time clergymen were so exas- 
peratingly sure they were right! Nor did 
they make fine distinctions. To us of today 
it is almost inconceivable that Rev. Dr. Ezra 
Stiles could have written in the margin of his 
almanack for the year 1789, against the date 
February 13, "General Ethan Allen of Ver- 
mont died and went to Hell this day " — 
but there it stands. And this because a 
patriot of the highest integrity was a free- 
thinker! Allen and his men, by the bye, 
made their headquarters at the " Catamount " 

70 



Gubernatorial and Other Tavern Junkets 

tavern, Bennington, Vermont. One of the 
rooms in this hostelry, which stood until 
1871, was designated as the "council room." 
Here the brave band of Green Mountain 
Boys laid their plans for the capture of 
Ticonderoga and drank good New England 
rum the while. The old tavern account-book 
bearing Ethan Allen's unbalanced score is 
still preserved. 

Auctions of human beings and public 
whippings were other junket occasions at the 
New England tavern. Criminals and pau- 
pers were both sold here the former to the 
highest bidder, the latter to the lowest; and 
lashes on the bared back were administered 
with neatness and dispatch. At Israel Clif- 
ford's tavern in Dunbarton, New Hamp- 
shire, one Gould, a sheep-thief, was sold at 
public auction for " damages and costs," 
taxed at £2-12-10 after having been vigor- 
ously " whipped thirteen stripes by Archi- 
bald Stark, Constable." 

None of the many junkets with which we 
have had to do seems to me so revolting 
however as those which attended the sale of 
paupers. In the town of Wareham, on Buz- 
zard's Bay, at the tavern of Benjamin Fear- 
ing such events frequently took place if we 

7^ 



Among Old New England Inns 

may trust Bliss's '' Colonial Times on Buz- 
zard's Bay." The sales were made, this 
writer tells us, in the tap-room of the inn, 
" where the landlord as he served the thirsty 
guests from his decanters, discussed with 
them the value of the services of the paupers, 
for whose keeping they had come to bid. 
The town records bear ugly testimony to the 
truth of this in the following words: " Jurned 
from the meeting house down to Benjamin 
Fearings house to vandue the poor." I hope 
I am right in saying that this revolting cus- 
tom has quite passed away in New England 
though in Pike County, Pennsylvania, only 
eight years ago, signs were posted, ^' A 
Woman for Sale " and Mrs. Elmira Quick, 
seventy-seven years old, was put up, in 
Rutan's Hotel, " to be sold to the lowest 
bidder for keep for a year " while men 
clinked glasses in the bar-room.^ 

'"Stage Coach and Tavern Days," p, 221. 



72 



CHAPTER V 

THE INNS OF OLD BOSTON 

When John Dunton, the voluble London 
bookseller whose praise of Ipswich fare we 
shall later encounter, took his pen in hand 
to describe a Boston landlord the result was 
as follows: ''He is a person so remarkable 
that had I not been acquainted with him it 
would be a hard matter to make any New 
England man believe that I had been in 
Boston; for there was no house in all the 
town more noted, or where a man might 
meet with better accommodation. Besides 
he was a brisk and jolly man whose con- 
versation was coveted by all his guests as 
the life and spirit of the company." 

The date of this paragraph is 1686 and 
the man who inspired it was George Monk, 
host of the " Blew Anchor," which used to 
flourish on the ground now occupied by the 
Globe newspaper buildings and which, in 
early times, divided with the State's Arms 

73 



Among Old New England Inns 

the magisterial patronage of the town. 
Robert Turner had been an earlier landlord 
here and Savage has preserved for us one 
record of entertainment during his day which 
is decidedly interesting; he tells us that " at 
the sign of the Blue Anchor Turner fur- 
nished lodgings and refreshments to members 
of the government, to juries, and to the 
clergy, when summoned into synod by our 
general court." That the law-makers did 
not stint themselves at the Anchor we are 
persuaded after seeing an old bill of an elec- 
tion banquet when two hundred and four 
diners consumed 72 bottles of Madeira, 28 
of Lisbon, 17 of port, 10 of claret, 18 of 
porter and 50 ^' double-bowls " of punch, in 
addition to unspecified cider. 

This inn was one of the most popular of 
the seventeenth century hostelries, but it was 
neither the oldest nor the most famous of the 
Boston taverns of that day. Cole's, licensed 
in 1634, antedates it by several years and was 
the first house of entertainment in the New 
England metropolis. It probably stood near 
the site well known to us today as the '' Old 
Corner " of " Bookstore " fame. Here Sam- 
uel Cole, who is classified as a " comfit- 
maker," saw to the comfort of Miantonomoh 

74 



The Inns of Old Boston 

when he and his dusky retinue visited Gov- 
ernor Vane in 1636 and here too, the Earl of 
Marlborough took up his residence when he 
came over to Boston on colonial business. 
Winthrop had urged his Lordship to accept 
the hospitality of the Governor's mansion 
but the haughty nobleman assured him that 
the house wherein he was staying was 
'' exceedingly well-governed " and intimated 
that he would, therefore, remain where he 
was. 

The distinguishing name of the second 
ordinary started in Boston cannot be given, 
but we know that its landlord was William 
Hudson, senior, that his license was issued 
in 1640, and that his previous occupation had 
been that of a baker. His name is on the 
list of those who were admitted freemen of 
the Colony in May, 1631, and we find him 
repeatedly noted as active in the town's 
affairs. His house was on the site afterwards 
given over to the " Bunch of Grapes," of 
which there will be much to say a few pages 
further on. 

A very celebrated house of this period 
was that called the King's Arms, and kept by 
Hugh Gunnison at the head of what is now 
Adams (Dock) Square. The date when 

7S 



Among Old New England Inns 

Gunnison was first allowed to '^ sell beer " is 
1642, and as he is then spoken of as one who 
keeps a '^ cooke's shop " it is plain that he 
must have begun very early to serve the 
public at this stand. In 1643 we find him 
humbly praying the court for leave " to draw 
the wyne which was spent in his house," 
explaining his reasonable request by saying 
that he felt it to be unfair as he knew it to 
be unprofitable to care for people who had 
purchased their liquor elsewhere. He asks 
this favour in order that " God be not dis- 
honored nor his people grieved." With the 
coming in of Puritan rule in England, Gun- 
nison diplomatically changed the name of 
his inn from the '' King's Arms " to the 
"State's Arms;" when the Stuarts were 
restored the house resumed its old insignia. 

A rival and a near neighbour of Gunni- 
son's was William Hudson, Junior, whose 
house was at what is now the upper cor- 
ner of Elm and Washington streets. He, 
too, was influenced by the coming in of 
Cromwell, though not in quite the same way 
as Gunnison. He, " with divers other of our 
best military men " crossed the ocean to take 
service in the Parliamentary forces, leaving 
the inn to the care of his wife. When he 

76 



The Inns of Old Boston 

returned, after an absence of two years, it 
was to find her publicly accused of having 
been unfaithful to her marriage vows. Very 
likely some of the many sailors who fre- 
quented the house had stolen her heart away. 
For Dock Square was then what its name 
would indicate, the centre of the city's trans- 
portation. At high tide the water came 
nearly up to the houses here and from 
Hudson's to the dock below was but a stone's 
throw. 

The most convenient inn for those who 
drew their wealth from the sea was, however, 
Ship Tavern, which stood on the south- 
west corner of what are now North and 
Clark streets. It was a brick building with 
a projecting second story and the date of its 
erection was surely as early as 1650. Thomas 
Hutchinson, father of the Governor, was 
some time its landlord, and in 1663 John 
Vyal presided over its destinies. Here King 
Charles's commissioners lodged when they 
came to America '' to settle all disputes ari- 
sing in the New England colony." In the 
course of their business, — and as a result 
of too liberal indulgence in Master Vyal's 
" best," — one of them. Sir Robert Carr, 
assaulted a constable in the public room of 

77 



Among Old New England Inns 

the house and found a fresh dispute on his 
hands. He was immediately summoned by 
Governor Leverett to come to his house and 
answer the complaint lodged against him! 
Sir Robert Carr, however, was a resourceful 
gentleman; moreover, he remembered very 
well Leverett's af^Pront to the commissioners 
in keeping his hat on his head when their 
authority to act was being read to the coun- 
cil. Very wtU, too, he knew that Leverett, 
who had served under Cromwell, would 
find as wormwood a flaunting of Stuart 
authority. So, with manifest joy, he replied 
to the summons as follows: " Sr, Yors I 
receyved last night in answer to wh as I am 
Sr Robert Carr I would have complied with 
yor desyres, but as I am wth ye Kyng's Com- 
mision, I shal not grant yor requests, both 
in respect of his Majestyes honor and my 
oune duty." Yet with all his insistence 
upon royal authority he could not make the 
colonists come around. His commission 
issued endless proclamations from the Ship 
Tavern and sounded trumpets without cease; 
but Boston folk went quietly on their way, 
unconscious, as it seemed, of the trouble they 
were making for themselves by refusing to 
be subdued. 

7« 



The Inns of Old Boston 

Characteristically, they persecuted in their 
turn. Nicholas Upshall, the noble Quaker 
who kept the Red Lion in North street, they 
threw into jail for his outspoken condemna- 
tion of the rigour with which the authorities 
were dealing with his sect. Upshall had 
come to New England on the Mary and 
John of Winthrop's fleet but he was very 
soon in durance, and eventually he was ban- 
ished for having attempted to get food to 
two Quakeresses who were starving in Bos- 
ton's jail. Prison treatment broke his health 
and he died as a result of it. Probably he is 
the only Boniface we shall meet who suffered 
death for conscience' sake. 

With the birth of the Royal Exchange, 
which stood on the southwest corner of 
Exchange and State streets, came the dawn 
of that brilliant pre-Revolutionary Boston 
dear to writers of romance. By 171 1 the 
business of entertainment was being carried 
on here but it was not until fifteen years 
later, when Luke Vardy had become land- 
lord, that the place took on the colour which 
has made it famous. It was then the resort 
of all the young bloods of the town, who, 
brave in velvets and ruffles, in powdered 
hair and periwigs, swore by the king and 

79 



Among Old New England Inns 

drank deep draughts of life and liquor. 
From this inn, Benjamin Woodbridge and 
Henry Phillips, both scions of Boston's first 
families, adjourned to the Common in 1728 
to fight a duel. Woodbridge had made a 
slighting remark about a friend of Phillips, 
and the latter had thrown the contents of 
his wine-glass in the insultant's face. Nothing 
but the death of one or both could wipe out 
this score. So it came about that, soon 
after sunrise the next morning, young Wood- 
bridge was found lying dead among the wet 
grasses of the community cow-pasture as the 
price of his careless words. Phillips es- 
caped on a man-of-war which was just 
weighing anchor. The immediate outcome 
of this crime was the enactment of a law 
whereby the convicted offender in a duel 
was '' to be carried publicly in a cart to the 
gallows, with a rope about his neck, and set 
on the gallows an hour; then to be impris- 
oned twelve hours without bail," and finally 
executed. The person killed in a duel was 
denied ^' Christian burial " and interred 
'^ near the usual place of execution with a 
stake drove through his body." 

British officers were very fond of patroniz- 
ing the Royal Exchange, — perhaps because 

80 



The Inns of Old Boston 

its high-sounding name appealed to their 
aristocratic fancy, — and an engaging story 
associated with the house is that of the instant 
capitulation here of Captain Ponsonby 
Molesworth, a nephew of Lord Ponsonby, to 
the charms of Susanna Sheaffe, eldest daugh- 
ter of the Deputy. The youth was marching 
with his soldiery, resplendent in the red 
uniform of His Majesty's service. The 
maiden happened to be within the house and, 
attracted by the music, stepped to the bal- 
cony. At once Molesworth saw her and was 
captivated by her beauty. Pointing her out 
to a brother officer he exclaimed, "Jove! 
That girl seals my fate!" Apparently he 
felt quite sure that Susanna would find him 
irresistible and such proved to be the case; 
they were married almost at once. 

Vardy's was a favourite resort of the Ma- 
sonic fraternity, also, mine host being a 
brother of the order. At one of their fes- 
tivals Joseph Green thus apostrophized him: 

" Where's honest Luke, that cook from London ? 
For without Luke the Lodge is undone. 
Twas he who oft dispelled their sadness, 
And filled the Brethren's hearts with gladness. 
Luke in return is made a brother 
As good and true as any other, 
8l 



Among Old New England Inns 

And still though broke with age and wine, 
Preserves the token and the sign." 

It was in front of this house that there 
occurred on March 5, 1770, the " famous 
Boston Massacre." As to just how the 
trouble began or what were the exact cir- 
cumstances attending it accounts do not 
agree. The reports made at the town-meet- 
ings in Faneuil Hall and the old South 
Church conflict with those written at the 
time; and at the trial (at the October term 
following) of Captain Preston, the com- 
mander of the troops, and the soldiers impli- 
cated in the massacre, the testimony was such 
that they were acquitted. What we do know, 
however, is that a chance collision between 
a sentry and some youths quickly developed 
into an attack with stones, clubs, snow-balls 
and other missiles upon the guard of British 
soldiers, and that five individuals were killed 
and several were slightly injured as a result. 
The story goes that the sentinel was first 
attacked, as he stood guarding the Custom 
House where the king's treasure was depos- 
ited, and that, retreating up the steps as far 
as he could, he loaded his gun, shouting 
lustily the while for help. Then the cor- 

82 



The Inns of Old Boston 

poral and six privates of the main guard who 
were stationed on what is now State street, 
opposite the door on the south side of the 
Town House, came to his relief. It was 
alleged that they did not fire upon the crowd 
until they were themselves first attacked. 
However that may be, the first blood of the 
Revolution was then shed. Thus it comes 
about that the Royal Exchange is shown in 
the background of Revere's well-known pic- 
ture of the Boston Massacre and so may be 
classed, almost in spite of itself, among the 
important Revolutionary taverns. 

A Boston inn with an incontestable right 
to this appellation was the Liberty Tree Tav- 
ern which stood on the east side of Wash- 
ington street, between Essex and Beach 
streets. The " Book of Possessions " tells us 
that in 1635 this plot of ground was appor- 
tioned to Garrett Bourne for a house and 
garden. The year following Bourne became 
a freeman, built his house and took posses- 
sion. He set out a variety of shade trees 
about his house, many of which were elms. 
In 1646, he transplanted an elm selected on 
account of its shape and vigour, a little dis- 
tance northwest of his house. Garrett Bourne 
" built and planted better than he knew." 

83 



Among Old New England Inns 

In about a century the house became noted 
as a tavern, and a little later on, as the meet- 
ing-place of the Sons of Liberty. In about 
the same time that transplanted elm became 
famous as the Liberty Tree, as the Sons of 
Liberty used to rally under its wide-spread- 
ing branches. It was under this tree that 
the first public act of resistance to British 
tyranny showed itself. At dawn, on the 14th 
of August, 1765, an effigy of Andrew Oliver, 
the stamp officer, was discovered hanging to 
one of the larger branches, which caused 
great excitement. The sheriff was ordered 
by the colonial Governor Hutchinson to 
remove the effigy from the tree. But such 
was the intensity of public feeling, he 
declared he dare not do so. It was creating 
a local revolution, and was removed by 
stratagem. The tree became famous about 
1760, and was named the Liberty Tree about 
this time. On Feb. 14, 1766, it was pruned 
by the order of the Sons of Liberty. 

The ground about the tree had become 
sacred soil, and was designated as Liberty 
Hall, and really became the original stamp- 
ing ground of the Revolution, in defiance of 
the "stamp act." In 1767 a flagstaff was 
erected, which went up through the branches, 

84 



The Inns of Old Boston 

upon which was hoisted a flag as a signal 
for the assembling of the Sons of Liberty. 
In August, 1775, the Tories, encouraged by 
their British allies, and led on by one Job 
Williams, armed with axes, made a furious 
attack upon the Liberty Tree, and it was 
ruthlessly cut down. This vandal act caused 
great excitement. At the close of the Revo- 
lution a liberty pole was erected on the stump 
of the old tree which long served as a point 
of direction. This pole having served dur- 
ing the second war with Great Britain, and 
having gone into decay, another one was 
erected about the time of the arrival of Gen- 
eral Lafayette as the guest of the nation in 
1824. The modern brick building now on 
this site has embedded in its front wall a 
tablet with a Liberty Tree in bas-relief. 

Of other famous Revolutionary inns there 
were, of course, several in Boston. The old- 
est of these was the Bunch of Grapes which 
goes back to 171 2, if not earlier. The first 
landlord here of whom we know was Francis 
Holmes, and after him came William Coffin 
in 173 1, Joshua Barker in 1749, Colonel 
IngersoU in 1764, John Marston in 1767, 
William Foster in 1782 and James Vila in 
1789. Upon the arrival of Governor William 

85 



Among Old New England Inns 

Burnett in 1728, he was escorted from the 
Neck to the Bunch of Grapes by a large body 
of enthusiastic citizens, headed by the Lieu- 
tenant-Governor, the Council, and Colonel 
Dudley's regiments. Burnett had in his 
train also a tutor, a black laundress, a stew- 
ard and a French cook upon whom, as we 
may readily believe, the Bostonians gazed 
with no little wonder. 

Governor Pownall is another of the colo- 
nial grandees who frequented the house in its 
earlier days. There is a pleasant story of 
a kiss which he once delivered standing on a 
chair there. Pownall was a short, corpulent 
person but a great ladies' man, and it was 
his habit to salute every woman to whom he 
was introduced with a sounding smack upon 
the cheek. One day a tall dame was pre- 
sented and he requested her to stoop to meet 
his proffered courtesy. " Nay, I'll stoop to 
no man, — not even to your Excellency," 
exclaimed the Amazon, with a haughty toss 
of her head. " Then I'll stoop to you, 
madam," readily retorted the gallant Gov- 
ernor, and springing to a chair beside her 
he bent over to do his obeisance. 

A less ingratiating visitor to the inn was 
Sir William Phips who once threatened to 

86 



The Inns of Old Boston 

thrash the landlord for some fancied slight. 
He could have done it, too, for he was a 
man of Herculean strength and his caning of 
Captain Short of the Nonesuch frigate and 
his assaults on the Collector of the Port Bren- 
ton left their mark upon the victims as well 
as upon history. When the voting in the 
General Court was proceeding in a way 
which did not please him he sometimes 
rushed into the chamber cane in hand and 
drove his opponents from their places! One 
writer^ has given us a very vivid picture of 
him sitting at his window in the Bunch of 
Grapes, which no one else dared approach, 
and glaring out at the pedestrians on King 
(now State) street. 

Much of interest was to be seen from that 
window, for the street was filled with 
'' horses, donkeys, oxen and long-tailed 
trucks, and a sprinkling of one-horse chaises 
and coaches of the kind seen in Hogarth's 
realistic pictures of London life. And to 
these," adds Samuel Adams Drake, who has 
written delightfully of old Boston Taverns as 
of most other colonial subjects, " should be 
added the chimney-sweeps, wood-sawyers, 
market-women, soldiers and sailors, who are 

' Frederick Walter Norcross in the New England Magazine. 

87 



Among Old New England Inns 

now quite as much out of date as the vehicles 
themselves are. As there were no sidewalks, 
the narrow footway was protected, here and 
there, sometimes by posts, sometimes by an 
old cannon set upright at the corners." Thus 
the traveller coming to the Bunch of Grapes 
could alight from his horse, coach or chaise 
at the inn's very threshold, directly under 
the gilded cluster of suggestive fruit which 
dangled temptingly over the doorway of the 
inn. 

One of these bunches of grapes now hangs 
in front of the lodge-room door of St. John's 
Lodge in the Masonic Temple, Boston, by 
reason of the fact that it was in the tavern 
they originally adorned that St. John's Lodge, 
the first Masonic lodge in America, was 
organized July 30, 1733 by Henry Price, a 
Boston tailor, who had received authority 
from Lord Montague. The house lived up 
to its sign, it is interesting to note, for it was 
known far and wide as " the best punch- 
house in Boston." When the time came to 
distinguish between conditional loyalty and 
loyalty at any cost, the Bunch of Grapes 
became the resort of the High Whigs, who 
made it a sort of political headquarters 
where patriotism was the password. And 

88 



The Inns of Old Boston 

when public feeling was still further inten- 
sified by military occupation and bayonet 
rule, a scarlet coat was an inflammatory 
signal in that tap-room. 

Upon the evacuation of Boston by the 
royal troops, this house was naturally the 
very centre of rejoicing and Stark's victory at 
Bennington was celebrated here with pecul- 
iar fervour. " In consequence of this news,'' 
writes one who was an actor in the affair, 
" we kept it up in high taste. At sundown 
about one hundred of the first gentlemen of 
the town, with all the strangers then in Bos- 
ton, met at the Bunch of Grapes, where 
good liquors and a side-table were provided. 
In the street were two brass field-pieces with 
a detachment of Colonel Craft's regiment. 
In the balcony of the Town-house all the 
fifes and drums of my regiment were sta- 
tioned. The ball opened with a discharge 
of thirteen cannon and at every toast given 
three rounds were fired and a flight of rockets 
sent up. About nine o'clock two barrels of 
grog were brought out into the street for the 
people that had collected there. It was all 
conducted with the greatest propriety and 
by ten o'clock every man was at his home." 
When Stark himself came to town he was 

89 



Among Old New England Inns 

royally entertained by the patriotic Marston, 
and when Lafayette returned from France 
in 1780 with the news that his country would 
lend us her aid he, too, was received here 
with all honours. 

A charming picture of the kind of enter- 
tainment furnished at this inn has come down 
to us. For the dinner, served at two o'clock, 
— to which the guests would have been sum- 
moned by the ringing of a bell in the street — 
there would be perhaps twenty persons. Once 
seated, they chatted together pleasantly while 
discussing salmon in season, veal, beef, mut- 
ton, fowl, ham, vegetables and pudding. 
Each had his pint of Madeira set before him 
and each served himself to that portion of 
the joint he liked best, all the carving being 
done at the table. Five shillings a day was 
the usual charge for this excellent fare^ 

Less picturesque than some of the Revo- 
lutionary gatherings, but quite as important 
to the progress of America, was the meet- 
ing in this tavern of the Ohio Company, 
which, under General Rufus Putnam and 
other Continental officers carried on at Mari- 
etta the first concerted movement of New 
England towards the Great West. 

The loyalists gathered in great numbers at 
90 



The Inns of Old Boston 

the British Coffee House. Here was per- 
formed in 1750, by an amateur company of 
red-coated officers, Otway's " Orphan/' an 
event which caused the enactment of a law 
prohibiting, under pain of severe penalties, 
the performance of stage plays in Boston. 
And here, in 175 1, was formed the first 
association in Boston to take unto itself the 
name of club. It was called the Merchants 
Club, though crown officers, members of the 
bar, army and navy men and gentlemen of 
high social rank as well as merchants were 
admitted to membership. For a long time 
this club represented the ripest culture and 
the most brilliant wit in the colonies. But 
when the clouds of the Revolution began to 
gather, the Whigs took themselves off to the 
Bunch of Grapes over the way. Thus we 
find John Adams writing, under date of 
1771 : ^' Spent the evening at Cordis's, in 
the front room towards the Long Wharf, 
where the Merchants' Club has met these 
twenty years. It seems there is schism in 
that church, a rent in that garment." There 
was indeed as James Otis had discovered not 
long before. 

Here, one evening in 1769, Otis received 
the drubbing that was to cost him his reason. 

91 



Among Old New England Inns 

The brilliant young orator had delivered his 
famous speech against the Writs of Assist- 
ance only a few days before, and in this 
speech he had so criticized Customs Com- 
missioner Robinson that his friends feared 
harm might come to him as a result. But 
Otis had no forebodings of evil. Had not 
the Boston mob carried him on their shoul- 
ders? There was only exultation in his 
thoughts, therefore, as he strolled down King 
street to the British Coffee House on the 
evening that was to mark his undoing. Very 
likely, though, he was wondering in his sub- 
conscious mind, as he made his way along 
the uneven street, who could have written 
the note which requested a meeting at the 
Coffee House at that hour. 

He was to learn only too soon. Outside 
the inn he paused beneath the broad sign to 
speak with a friend. Then he went within. 
Immediately he was jostled into a corner 
and set upon by a party of roughs at whose 
head he recognized his enemy, Robinson! 
Otis's friend did what he could in the way 
of rescue, but he was promptly overpowered 
and hurried into the street. Meanwhile the 
great orator had been thrown to the floor 
where he was left, stunned and bleeding, 

92 



The Inns of Old Boston 

with a great cut in his forehead. Futile now 
were his rare gifts. His brain became 
clouded as a result of the blows he had 
received, and ultimately he became insane. 
Thus the Tories accomplished by brute 
force what they were never able to do by 
argument, — the silencing of the most potent 
voice ever raised against royal encroach- 
ment. Otis's gifts of satire alone would have 
won for him their hearty hatred. Once when 
Governor Bernard had interrupted him to 
ask whose authority he was just then citing, 
he had replied coolly, " He is a very eminent 
jurist, and none the less so for being unknown 
to your Excellency." 

Yet Otis refused to pose as a martyr, and 
never alluded to his sufferings, save for some 
such purpose as John Adams records, apro- 
pos of the complaints of William Molyneux. 
That gentleman had been petitioning the leg- 
islature for favours which it did not choose 
to grant, and for several evenings he had 
wearied the company with the recital of his 
grievances, ending his story always by saying 
" That a man who has behaved as I have, 
should be treated as I am is intolerable." 

Otis listened for some time without retort, 
but at length, perceiving that the whole club 

93 



Among Old New England Inns 

was out of patience, he jumped up and said 
gayly, " Come Will, I too, have a list of 
grievances; will you hear it?" Expecting 
sport all cried out^ "Ay! ay! let us hear 
your list." 

" Well, then in the first place I resigned 
the office of Advocate General which I held 
from the crown, which produced me — how 
much do you think? " 

" A great deal, no doubt," said Molyneux. 

" Shall we say two hundred sterling a 
year?" 

" Ay, more I believe," said Molyneux. 

" Well, let it be two hundred. That for 
ten years is two thousand. In the next place, 
I have been obliged to relinquish the greater 
part of my business at the bar. Will you set 
that at two hundred pounds more?" 

" Oh I believe it is much more than that! " 
was the answer. 

" Well, let it be two hundred. This, for 
ten years, makes two thousand. You allow 
then I have lost four thousand pounds 
sterling? " 

" Ay, and more too," said Molyneux. 

Otis went on : " In the next place I have 
lost a hundred friends among whom were 
men of the first rank, fortune and power in 

94 



The Inns of Old Boston 

the province. At what price will you 
estimate them? " 

'' D — n them!" said Molyneux, "at noth- 
ing. You are better off without them than 
with them." 

A loud laugh from the company greeted 
this sally. 

" Be it so," said Otis. " In the next place 
I have made a thousand enemies, among 
whom are the government of the province 
and nation. What do you think of this 
item? " 

'^ That is as it may happen," said Moly- 
neux, reflectively. 

'' In the next place you know I love pleas- 
ure, but I have renounced pleasure for ten 
years. What is that worth?" 

" No great matter: you have made politics 
your amusement." 

A hearty laugh. 

" In the next place I have ruined as fine 
health as nature ever gave to man." 

"That is melancholy indeed; there is 
nothing to be said on that point," Molyneux 
replied. 

" Once more," continued Otis, holding 
down his head before Molyneux, " look upon 
this head!" (There was a deep half-closed 

95 



Among Old New England Inns 

scar in which a man might lay his finger — ) 
*^ and, what is worse, my friends think I have 
a monstrous crack in my skull." 

This made all the company look grave and 
had the desired effect of silencing Molyneux, 
who was really a good companion. Yet, 
notwithstanding his wrongs, Otis was so 
generous that, when Robinson had apolo- 
gized, he magnanimously refused the dam- 
ages awarded him by the court. 

Another inn frequented by Otis and one 
which will probably outlive all its contem- 
poraries in the endurance of its fame is the 
Green Dragon, which Daniel Webster once 
pronounced the " headquarters of the Revo- 
lution." Here Warren, John Adams and 
Paul Revere all assembled and plotted and 
here used to resort hundreds of patriots for 
the express purpose of conferring with their 
chiefs. The house was kept in 171 2 by 
Richard Pullin; in 1715 by Mr. Pattoun; 
in 1734 by Joseph Kilder; in 1769 by John 
Gary and in 1771, when it became the place 
of meeting of the Revolutionary Club, by 
Benjamin Burdick. In the local events 
which preceded the encounter at Lexington 
the men who met here all had important 
parts to play. Says Revere: "In the fall 

96 



The Inns of Old Boston 

of 1774 and winter of 1775 I was one of 
upwards thirty, chiefly mechanics, who 
formed ourselves into a committee for the 
purpose of watching the movements of the 
British soldiers and gaining every intelli- 
gence of the movements of the tories. We 
held our meetings at the Green Dragon Tav- 
ern. This committee was astonished to find 
all their secrets known to General Gage, 
although every time they met every member 
swore not to reveal any of their transactions 
except to Hancock, Adams, Warren, Otis, 
Church and one or two more." 

Doctor Church proved to be the traitor 
among them/ 

The men of the Green Dragon group it 
was who gave the alarm on the eve of the 
battle of Lexington, who spirited away can- 
non under General Gage's very nose and 
who, again and again, in the course of the 
war, performed swiftly and well dangerous 
pieces of work. Dr. Warren was the idol of 
the crowd, and between him and Revere a 
very warm friendship sprang up. When he 
sent the silversmith word, therefore, that he 
must instantly ride to Lexington he knew 
that the alarm would be spread with all 

* See " Romance of Old New England Roof-Trees." 

97 



Among Old New England Inns 

possible dispatch " through every Middlesex 
village and farm." It was in this inn that 
a great mass of Boston mechanics voted with 
acclamation to urge the adoption of the Con- 
stitution by the Federal Convention. The 
walls of the Green Dragon so shook as they 
made this resolve, that Samuel Adams 
exclaimed whimsically, " Well if they want 
it they must have it." 

The tavern stood on Union street and was 
a two-storied brick building with pitch roof, 
showing above its entrance a metal dragon. 
The site of this most famous of Boston inns 
is now marked by a tablet having the fa- 
bled monster sculptured thereon in bas-relief. 
During the British occupation of Boston, the 
several lodges of the regiment held their 
meetings here. Thus there are associations 
of many kinds connected with the house. 

No one of these is more interesting than 
the celebration here of that Pope Day which 
cost Governor Hancock one thousand dollars. 
Boston had long observed the anniversary of 
the momentous Gunpowder Plot by proces- 
sions from the North and South End respect- 
ively. Each section had its marchers and its 
Pope, and when the two met there was sure 
to be a riot, for the rivalry between these 

98 



The Inns of Old Boston 

two districts was exceeding bitter. From 
these combats, in the course of which the 
rival effigies of the papal sovereign were 
always dragged from their thrones and fists, 
stones and clubs circulated freely, there arose 
a degree of ill-feeling which Hancock feared 
might prove very prejudicial to the patriot 
cause. So, having in vain endeavoured to 
suppress the disagreements, he formed the 
brilliant idea of setting the bickerers all down 
together at a great feast spread in the Green 
Dragon. His plan worked like a charm, and 
though the spread cost him a great deal of 
money, — which he never spent without pain, 
— he had the satisfaction of knowing that 
it put an end to the riots which had long 
disturbed the community^.^ 

Another famous hostelry of eighteenth cen- 
tury Boston was the Cromwell's Head which 
stood near King's Chapel on School street. 
It was kept by Anthony Brackett in 1760, by 
his widow in 1764, and later by his brother 
Joshua. Marquis de Chastellux, of RocHam- 
beau's auxiliary army, lodged here when he 
was in Boston in 1782, and had the felicity 
to make the acquaintance of Paul Jones. It 
speaks badly for the gallantry of the little 
admiral that he is said to have read to the 

99 



Among Old New England Inns 

company in the coffee-room of this house 
some verses composed in his honour by Lady 
Craven. 

When Boston town fell into the power of 
the '' British hirelings " it seemed for a time 
as if it might go hard with this hostelry. 
For its sign, which bore the grim features of 
the Lord Protector, hung so low over the 
footway that pedestrians had been compelled 
either to bow before it or whack their heads 
against its heavy board, alternatives equally 
detestable to Kingsmen. When their time 
of might dawned, therefore, mine host Brack- 
ett was obliged to take down his sign and 
retire it for a time from public life. But on 
the very day of the evacuation it was 
replaced! Brackett's "bill" was from a 
plate made by Paul Revere. At its head 
stood a facsimile of the sign stating that 
besides board, lodging, and fare one might 
have wine, punch, porter and liquor, with 
due care for one's horse for certain pounds, 
shillings, and pence. 

Lieutenant-Colonel George Washington, 
then a young man who had just begun to 
make a name for himself, put up at this 
tavern in 1756. He had been sent to New 
England by Governor Dinwiddie to confer 

100 



The Inns of Old Boston 

with Governor Shirley about matters mili- 
tary. By one who saw him then he is 
described as exceeding tall with large hands 
and feet and a patrician air which com- 
manded homage. 

Twenty years later, when Washington was 
again in the vicinity of Boston, he was chiefly 
associated with the George or St. George 
Tavern which stood on the Neck, near the 
Roxbury line. This inn was surrounded by 
an estate of eighteen acres which included a 
stretch of field and marsh from Roxbury on 
the south to the great creek on the west. It 
had orchards and gardens about it and com- 
manded a good view of both Boston and 
Cambridge Bay. In 1775 it was a military 
centre for just below it the Americans had 
thrown up their entrenchments. Despite the 
fact that the inn was well within range of the 
British musketry General Washington used 
to visit it daily during the siege and, standing 
on its low porch, was wont to view the 
enemy's position through his field-glasses. 
His uniform, with its buff-coloured facings, 
was an easy mark for the British sharp- 
shooters, and several of their bullets, which 
lodged in the veranda posts, bore evidence 
of their zeal and vigilance. 

lOI 



Among Old New England Inns 

The sign at this inn depicted a globe with 
a man breaking through the crust, like a 
chicken from its shell. Apropos of this we 
have a characteristic story of Continental 
soldiery. A regiment had just made a forced 
march from Providence and hungry, wea- 
ther-beaten and broken with fatigue they 
reached this inn. When the wag of the 
crowd espied the man on the sign with his 
motto, " Oh, how shall I get through this 
world," he exclaimed, with a rueful look at 
his own battered person, "'List, darn ye! 
'List, and you'll get through this world fast 
enough." 

With the Hancock Tavern in Corn Court, 
where Talleyrand is said by some to have 
stayed during his visit to Boston in 1795 
there is connected a story of romantic if 
tragic interest. The diplomat took a fancy 
to a delicately-worked pen-knife in the 
landlord's possession and ofifered to buy it 
whereupon it was given to him with the 
compliments of mine host. Soon after leav- 
ing America Talleyrand w^ent to Homburg 
and there became enamoured of a beautiful 
baroness known to the world as Cordelia. 
This woman in her turn admired the pen- 
knife and with a kiss and a jest her lover 

102 




HANCOCK TAVERN, BOSTON 



The Inns of Old Boston 

gave it to her. Later he deserted her and 
she was found dead on the floor of her 
apartment with an open note addressed to 
M. de Talleyrand on the table by her side. 
" I have burned all your letters," this note 
read. " They do no honour to my memory 
nor to your heart. You are the author of 
my death; may God forgive you as I do." 
The lovely baroness had stabbed herself 
to the heart with that pen-knife which had 
once been the property of a Boston boniface. 



T03 



CHAPTER VI 

SOME REVOLUTIONARY TAVERNS 

The tavern was the breeding-place par 
excellence of the Revolution. What more 
natural than for a lot of men, sitting around 
a blazing fire and talking by the month of 
their wrongs, to say finally to each other 
"Let us rebel!" Flip all around and then 
more flip would be drunk to this reso- 
lution; after which our sturdy forefathers | 
would go home in the light of the twinkling 
stars full to the brim of patriotism, — and of 
New England rum. But they were by no 
means beside themselves with either. It was 
an age of hard drinking and hard thinking 
and very careful plans were laid ere the 
first seditionary step was taken. 

Occasionally, of course, the landlord was 
on " the other side." Such was the case with 
Captain Jones, keeper of the Golden Ball 
Tavern in Weston, Massachusetts, in whose 
house the British spy, John How, received 

104 



Some Revolutionary Taverns 

hospitality while out on a mission for General 
Gage previous to the battles of Lexington 
and Concord. 

It was a fine spring morning early in 
April, 1775, that a loutish-looking fellow 
presenting the appearance of a Yankee 
farmer, strolled into the stable yard of the 
Joel Smith Tavern in the centre of Weston 
and asked for work. When questioned as to 
what he could do, he said he was an expert 
gunsmith, and from that led the talk into 
warlike channels. But he was a little too 
glib, and he was soon told that no Britishers 
were wanted for hire there. He protested 
vehemently that he was not a Britisher, but 
the men of this public house would have 
none of him, asserting that they knew per- 
fectly well by his talk that he was a Britisher 
and a spy. 

By this time quite a crowd had gathered 
in the tavern-yard and, to escape from their 
anger, How hurried up the road. His in- 
structions had been to examine the bridges 
and fording-places, as well as to find out the 
state of public feeling and he was in the 
midst of the former occupation when Cap- 
tain Jones of the Golden Ball caught sight 
of him. To the captain's question as to what 

105 



Among Old New England Inns 

he was doing down there, How replied that 
he was looking for flagroot; but when he 
found that Jones was a Royalist in his sym- 
pathies he revealed his true character, and 
was promptly taken into the tavern and pro- 
vided with a good dinner. Hardly had he 
finished the meal, however, when there came 
word that the mob were after him, and he 
was hastily escorted by Jones's negro servant 
to the house of Mr. Wheaton, another Roy- 
alist who lived in a remote part of the town. 
There he safely spent the night while thirty 
baffled men searched every nook and corner 
of the Golden Ball in the hope of finding 
him, contenting themselves, when sure he was 
not there, with drinking a new barrel of rum 
Jones offered them. In a day or two How 
pushed on to Worcester and, the next week, 
turned up at Concord with his observation 
primed for any sign of military stores he 
might come upon. Meanwhile he had sent 
back word to General Gage that if he 
attempted to march artillery over the Weston 
road not a man would come back alive. 
This little incident at Weston it was, then, 
which caused the Tory general's change of 
plan, and brought on the battle of Concord. 
The builder of the famous Golden Ball 
io6 



Some Revolutionary Taverns 

Inn (erected in 175 1) was Colonel Elisha 
Jones, an ardent Tory, who, at the time of 
his death, three months before the battle of 
Concord, commanded the Royal Middlesex 
Regiment. His Weston estate, which is now 
the home of General Paine, was confiscated 
during the Revolution, as was most other 
Tory property, and the tavern was kept in 
the family only by Landlord Jones consent- 
ing to take the oath of allegiance. He kept 
it, too, so far as is known. Certainly Paul 
Revere did not find the atmosphere of the 
house at all oppressive when he spent a night 
there while on his way to receive the pris- 
oners taken at Saratoga, whom he conducted 
to Winter Hill. 

The Buckman Tavern, on the right of the 
Bedford road in Lexington, saw the assem- 
bling, preparatory to the battle of Lexington, 
of the minutemen who belonged to Captain 
Parker's company. From here, too, the Brit- 
ish were fired upon, and in the house, which 
still stands, may be seen to-day shot-holes to 
attest that the regulars fired back. 

The object of the British in marching to 
Concord was to destroy the stores John How 
had told them were there. Almost as soon 
as Major Pitcairn reached the town he went 

107 



Among Old New England Inns 

to a tavern where he had often lodged, 
sometimes in disguise, and finding the door 
closed, forced his way in and put innkeeper 
Jones under guard while the place was 
searched. He must have felt richly rewarded, 
for his men found three 24-pounders, com- 
pletely furnished with everything necessary 
for mounting, which the Major very speedily 
put out of commission. Then he demanded 
that mine host serve him breakfast! One of 
the buildings which now forms part of the 
modern Colonial Inn was a storehouse at 
this time, and was also visited in 1775 by 
John How. 

From the earliest days. Concord had been 
quite rich in taverns. On the spot where 
the present public library stands Sergeant 
William Buss long kept an old-time ordi- 
nary. Buss was a most estimable — not to 
say extraordinary — person, for, not desiring 
to sell *^ strong waters," he asked the select- 
men to exempt him from that duty when 
they gave him an inn license in 1660 or 
earlier. Just where he drew the line is not 
clear, because it is hardly possible that the 
selectmen, in granting his request, sustained 
him to the extent of permitting him to sell 
neither fermented nor distilled liquor. Buss 

108 



Some Revolutionary Taverns 

was, however, supplemented in his ministra- 
tions by Major Simon Willard, whose duties 
included the exercise of the '^ trainband " as 
well as the sale of wine and '' strong wa- 
ter." 

This Simon Willard was a good deal of a 
man. He came to America from Kent 
county, England, and was at Cambridge, 
Massachusetts, as early as 1634. With the 
Rev. Peter Bulkeley, he joined in the pur- 
chase of the tract of territory we know as 
Concord, and he soon became an important 
person in the direction of matters there, being 
possessed of considerable means as well as of 
strong common sense. About 1660 he went 
to Lancaster, and in 1672 to Groton, in both 
of which towns he has left his impress upon 
history. In King Philip's war, he led a com- 
pany, with distinction to them and to him- 
self, and in times of peace he was closely 
identified with the militia of the Massachu- 
setts Bay Colony. His first wife was Mercy 
Shays, and his second and third were sisters 
of President Dunster of Harvard College. 
His seventeen children have done much to 
preserve the name and the fame of their pro- 
genitor. The old Willard house at Concord 
survived until about thirty years ago, when 

109 



Among Old New England Inns 

it was destroyed by fire. Its site is now 
marked by a tablet not far from the first 
south bridge. 

In 1666 John Hayward kept the Black 
Horse Tavern on the main street and for 
years afterwards he welcomed the travel- 
ling public there. Before the Revolution, 
Ephraim Jones presided over an ordinary 
near the west end of the Main street burying 
ground, and adjacent to the old wooden jail; 
feeding the prisoners was part of this tav- 
ern-keeper's business. 

/Most interesting for our purposes, how- 
ever, because still standing, is the Wright 
Tavern, established in 1747, and a public 
house during the War of the Revolution, — 
even as it is to-day. Here some of the Eng- 
lish officers made their headquarters during 
their few hours' sojourn in the town on 
April 19th, and here, tradition says, Maj. 
John Pitcairn, who commanded the British 
marines, observed as he stirred his brandy 
and sugar, " In this way we will stir the 
blood of the Yankees before night." This 
place was also the rendezvous of the Con- 
cord Minutemen while awaiting, on that 
same morning, tidings of the advance of the 
English, and hither came Captain Smith 

no 



Some Revolutionary Taverns 

and his company from Lincoln to report. 
The Wright Tavern, therefore, has every 
claim to the reverence it annually receives 
from thousands of pilgrims, who there rest 
from their labours, and partake of needed 
refreshment in the course of '' doing " Con- 
cord. Its age alone would make it worthy 
of veneration. Opened about 1747 by a 
militia captain named Ephraim Jones, it 
passed in 175 1 into the possession of Thomas 
Munroc, formerly of Lexington, who made 
the place, — as Jones had done before him, 
— a very popular resort for town officials and 
others. Amos Wright began to be landlord 
here in 1775 and, though he was the head 
of the house for only a short time, his name 
clings. At present the property belongs to 
the '^ First Parish Society," into whose care 
it was willed by the late Reuben Rice and 
Judge E. Rockwell Hoar. Its old fireplaces 
are now reopened, and the inside of the 
house is restored to somewhat of its former 
antique appearance. Externally it has 
changed surprisingly little from the aspect 
it presented away back in 1775, when Doo- 
little and Earle painted it as the back- 
ground for their picture showing the royal 
troops drawn up in Concord square. 

Ill 



Among Old New England Inns 

The prices formerly charged at this house 
are interesting. When ordinaries were first 
established in Concord a meal cost a six- 
pence, but in 1779 it was enacted in a neigh- 
bouring town that there, — and very likely 
here, also, 

" A mug of West India flip should cost 
20 pence. 

" A mug of New England flip should cost 
12 pence. 

"A good dinner should cost 12 pence. 

^' Breakfast and supper, each, should cost 
15 pence. 

" Lodging should cost 4 pence."^ 

At the Munroe Tavern in Lexington the 
brutality which disgraces the English sol- 
diery of April 19, 177s, first became evi- 
dent. Percy reached this tavern with rein- 
forcements about two o'clock in the after- 
noon. One party of his men entered the 
house and, after compelling the inmates to 
serve them to whatever they wanted, ruth- 
lessly shot down John Raymond, an infirm 
man residing in the family, only because 
he had become alarmed at their roughness 
and brutal conduct, and attempted to leave 
the house for a place of greater safety. 

At Cooper's Tavern, in Arlington, Jabez 
112 




WRIGHT TAVERN, CONCORD 



..-'^s^ y \^ "^./Hi*! 


■ 'i^M^^'^'^' 


-j.^ ^^^^^^^^^^w^KKKlf^^^^ 


djiiKiQ "'^^n X- 


Hp"*^ ^Jm 


\ 1 


I^K X a 



cooper's tavern, AKLINGION 



Some Revolutionary Taverns 

Wyman and Jason Winship, two aged citi- 
zens who had come, unarmed, simply to 
inquire the news " were most barbarously 
and inhumanly murdered by the British, 
being stabbed through in many places, their 
heads mauled, skulls broken and their brains 
dashed out on the floors and walls of the 
house." ^ 

Arnold's Tavern, Weymouth, Massachu- 
setts, is another house of Revolutionary in- 
terest, for here was organized on March 9, 
1775, the committee of correspondence for 
that and neighbouring towns. Of this com- 
mittee Dr. Tufts was chairman and Cap- 
tain White, Major Lovell, Major Vining 
and Mr. Joseph Colson other members. 

At Sawtell's Tavern, Shirley, in the old 
Bay State, the rights of New England peo- 
ple to representation when they had paid 
taxes were vigorously asserted. Obadiah 
Sawtell kept the house, and when the Gen- 
eral Court was formed, he was sent as the 
town's first representative. He was a dele- 
gate, too, to the convention which adopted 
the Constitution of the United States. How 
extensively persons from outside appeared 

" Deposition of Benjamin and Rachel Cooper, taken May lo 1775. 
while the facts were fully known. 



Among Old New England Inns 

at Shirley for accommodation, tradition 
does not inform us, but the tavern was the 
place where, on gala days, the townspeople 
conducted their games and sports, and here, 
too, the veterans of the French and Indian 
wars long made their boasts of valour. 

Greenwich, Connecticut, has a Revolu- 
tionary tavern of quite unusual interest, for 
it was from here that General Israel Put- 
nam, *' old Put," rushed out (in 1779) with 
his face half shaved, to take that daring ride 
down the stone steps, the story of which is 
one of our most cherished American tradi- 
tions. In those days the house was the Israel 
Knapp Tavern, one of the most popular hos- 
telries on the main road between Boston and 
New York. Along this road Sir Edmund 
Andros journeyed to take his seat as the 
Governor of New England in 1686; in 
1775 a messenger bearing the news of Lex- 
ington spurred his horse past the inn, and 
Washington and Lafayette were only a few 
of the others who made the highway his- 
torically famous by passing over it. To-day 
automobiles by the score speed along here 
every hour and their passengers stop for re- 
freshment at the Putnam Cottage tea-room, 



114 




ARNOLD'S TAVERN, WEYMOUTH 



1' 






f"yBfe9f 


J 


.jd 






■PHr^tt.:^. m 




Ts^^y****'-'*'' 4 . '« 


wmm — ^i»^^^ 




^'^^^pl 


HP^^^ 





SAWTELL'S TAVERN, SHIRLEY 



Some Revolutionary Taverns 

even as their ancestors were wont to do at 
Israel Knapp's taproom. 

The house probably dates back two hun- 
dred years. Certainly the land on which it 
stands was bought in 1692 by one Timothy 
Knapp, and the interested student may find 
in the Greenwich land records the following 
deed, dated 1729: 

" Know all men by these presents that I 
Timothy Knap of Greenwich in the County 
of fairfield & Colony of Connecticut for ye 
love good will & fatherly afection which I 
have and do bear to my loving & dutiful son 
Israel Knap of the same place County and 
Colony aforesd do fully freely & absolutely 
give & grant unto my aforesd son Israel 
Knap his heirs excrs or admrs for ever soitin 
pearsal or pearsals of land within ye bounds 
of greenwich the half of my now Dwelling 
hous and the one half of my home lot & ye 
one half of a barn when it is bilt & finished 
& the one half of my orchard & the land on 
south side of the street that is bounded north 
by the streets & east by the land of Ebeneezer 
Mead & south by the land of Sam'l Mills 
& west by ye meads lands for him ye sd 
Israel Knap his heirs asigns for to have & 

IIS 



Among Old Nezv England Inns 

to hold ye above bargained premises with 
all Rights privalidgs and apurtanances to 
ye same belonging or in any wis apurtaining 
& do promis to warrant secure & defend the 
above bargained premises from all former 
bargains seals rents taxes or in cumbrances 
what so ever made or contracted before the 
Daye & Date hereof always provided that 
sd Israel Knap is not to sell nor let out sd 
premises to any man or persons who so ever 
during the life of his father & for the con- 
firmation of this above written Deed of gift I 
have hereunto sett my hand & seal this twenty 
first Day of March anno qui Domini 1729 

"Signed sealed & de- The tenth day of April anno 

livered In the presents domini 1729 then appeared 

of Caleb Knap Jue. the person of Timothy Knap 

John Marshal did acknowlidg the above 

Entered Aprill ye 19th Day written deed of gift to be 

1729 by Joshua Knap Re- his free and voluntary act 

corder & deed 

" Gershom Lockwood Justice of ye peace." 

The deed of this transfer seems worth giv- 
ing in full because it establishes the claim 
of this house to a place among the very few 
early New England taverns which still en- 
tertain the public. To it, as to the Williams 
Tavern at Marlboro, the Wayside Inn at 

116 



Some Revolutionary Taverns 

Sudbury, and the West Brookfield Tavern, 
the automobile has given a new lease of life. 

The really interesting history of this 
house begins, however, with the Revolu- 
tion. Greenwich was debatable ground all 
through that struggle and British soldiers 
were almost as much there as our own men; 
similarly there was a considerable number 
of people resident in the town who had Tory 
sympathies. Among these was Israel Knapp 
himself, and it is said that his tavern was 
for a long time the secret meeting-place of 
those who strove to defeat the Colonies' 
cause. Thereby hangs a highly romantic 
though rather dismal tale. 

Israel Knapp's favourite son, Timothy, 
shared the Tory proclivities of his father, 
but he was deeply in love with the beautiful 
daughter of the patriot, Jonathan Mead, 
who lived nearby. It is believed that the 
girl returned his affection but she felt that 
loyalty to her father's cause compelled her 
to refuse Timothy's offer of marriage, and 
the youth, not unnaturally, was deeply hurt 
by this. As he left the house the evening 
of her refusal to give him the answer he 
so ardently desired he exclaimed, reproach- 
fully, though with some anger as well, 

117 



Among Old New England Inns 

" One day you will speak to me, but I shall 
never answer you." 

One evening, shortly afterwards, when he 
was approaching the Mead home, probably 
to make another attempt to win the girl of 
his choice, her father, mistaking him for one 
of the British marauders of whom the town 
was full, shot him through the heart. In an 
agony of love and remorse, the girl threw 
herself upon his lifeless body and besought 
him to speak to her. But he could not re- 
spond either to her voice or to her warm 
caresses. His body lies buried on the 
grounds of his father's tavern. 

" Old Put " had himself been doing the 
gallant the night before he was surprised by 
the British at this inn. The story goes that 
he had escorted a pretty maiden. Mistress 
Bush of Cos Cob, to a dance in that part 
of the town known as Pecksland, and that 
it was in the wee small hours of the morn- 
ing when he retired. Next morning he slept 
considerably later than was his habit, and 
he had only shaved one side of his face when 
the news came that a large force of British 
and Tories was approaching along the Post 
Road from New York. With the lather still 
on his face, Putnam saddled his horse, ha- 

ii8 



Some Revolutionary Taverns 

stened to the Congregational meeting house, 
— which was only a few rods west of the 
Knapp Tavern, — and drew up his little 
body of Continentals. Resistance by such 
a small number was futile, however, and 
after the first volley he ordered his men to 
look to their own safety as best they could. 
Then he started on a gallop towards Stam- 
ford for reinforcements. 

The nearest way was down some steps cut 
for pedestrians in the rocks of what is now 
known as Put's Hill. The British thought 
that they had surely captured the American 
general when they saw him spurring his 
horse to this precipitous place. But " old 
Put " was equal to anything, and without 
a second's hesitation he galloped down the 
steep incline, turning in his saddle to shake 
his fist at the astounded dragoons, who 
dared not follow him, and to call, " Darn 
ye, I'll hang ye to the next tree when I get 
ye." That very day he returned with rein- 
forcements and captured a considerable num- 
ber of prisoners. 

Since the Revolution, the Knapp Tavern 
has been the property of various owners, 
though it was held until 1812 by Margaret 
Knapp, daughter of the old tavern-keeper. 

119 



Among Old New England Inns 

Then the Tracey family held it for more 
than fifty years and, in 1901, the late Colo- 
nel Herschel Adams, — whose wife, Helen 
Reddington Adams is a descendant of John 
Reddington, a Greenwich soldier of the 
Revolution, — bought the place and was in- 
strumental in turning it over to the Putnam 
Hill Chapter, D. A. R. as their headquar- 
ters. The house is tastefully furnished with 
choice pieces of the Colonial and Revolu- 
tionary period, nearly all of which have 
well-authenticated histories. Of particular 
interest is a desk in the reception room, 
which was long the property of Colonel 
Barrett, who led the American troops at 
Concord. Upon this desk Putnam, while 
a guest of Colonel Barrett, once wrote a 
letter to Washington. 



120 




KNAPP TAVERN, GREENWICH 




INTERIOR OF KNAPP TAVERN (NOW PUTNAM COTTAGE) 



CHAPTER VII 

SOME RHODE ISLAND TAVERNS IN WHICH 
HISTORY WAS MADE 

The smallest of the New England states 
is very rich in historic taverns. Allusion 
has already been made to the Roger Mowry 
Tavern which no longer survives but which 
stood on Abbott street, Providence, nearly 
two hundred and fifty years — from the dark 
days of King Philip's war to the dawn of 
the twentieth century! This is a very long 
time in our land of rapid changes, so long 
a time indeed that it is small wonder that 
scarcely a trace of the original building 
could be seen in the house as it last looked. 
But the huge stone chimney and the rear 
view of the tavern from the top of the hill 
upon which it stood proved amply satisfy- 
ing to one in search of evidence of antiquity. 

Another Providence tavern of venerable 
association is connected with the first overt 
act of rebellion credited to our colonist fore- 

121 



Among Old New England Inns 

bears. This is the Sabin Tavern, formerly 
located on South Main street, Providence, in 
one room of which the party met to organ- 
ize the expedition which destroyed the Gas- 
pee. This act took place nearly three years 
before the Concord and Lexington fight but 
the sturdy patriots of Rhode Island were so 
filled with resentment against the overbear- 
ing conduct of the Gaspee's officers that they 
resolved to strike an effective blow. The 
obnoxious schooner was commanded by 
Lieut. William Dudingston, and its adver- 
tised mission was " to prevent breakers of 
the revenue laws, and to stop the illicit trade, 
so long and so successfully carried on in the 
colony." 

The manner in which these orders were 
carried out was what chiefly offended. For 
the Gaspee's commander insultingly over- 
hauled all vessels sailing up and down the 
bay, not excepting market boats; and he 
even went to the length of molesting and 
plundering people on shore. In the Provi- 
dence Gazette of March 28, 1772, we find 
the following reference to one of these dep- 
redations: "A number of men belonging to 
the armed schooner that has been for some 
time past cruising in the river interrupting 

122 




SABIN TAVERN, PROVIDENCE 



Some Rhode Island Taverns 

the traders, firing on Oyster boats &c we are 
told landed on the Narragansett Shore a few 
days since & carried off several Hogs be- 
longing to the inhabitants, and also a Quan- 
tity of Fire wood." Individuals appre- 
hended by the Gaspee within the bay were 
sent '' to Boston for trial, contrary to an act 
of Parliament, which required such trials to 
be held in the Colonies where seizures were 
made." 

This was not for a moment to be tolerated 
and Darius Sessions, the deputy-governor, 
began to be besieged with complaints, all of 
which asked for information concerning the 
real authority of this British commander in 
taking charge of the navigable waters of the 
state. Thereupon Chief Justice Hopkins 
was asked for an opinion. He gave it: "no 
commander of any vessel has a right to use 
any authority in the body of the Colony, 
without previously appearing to the gov- 
ernor and showing his warrant for so doing, 
and also being sworn to a due exercise of 
his office." 

Naturally this decision precipitated a 
spirited correspondence between Governor 
Wanton and Lieut. Dudingston. Subse- 
quently all the letters which passed between 

123 



Among Old New England Inns 

them were submitted to Admiral Montague, 
who was in command of the British fleet at 
Boston. But, following a custom not yet 
outgrown, the Admiral stoutly upheld his 
'* man " replying to the governor '* that he 
Dudingston, has done his duty and behaved 
like an ofl[icer, and it is your duty as a gov- 
ernor to give him your assistance and not 
endeavor to distress the King's ofliicers for 
strictly complying with my orders. I shall 
give them directions," he continued, " that 
in case they receive any molestation in the 
execution of their duty, they shall send every 
man so taken in molesting them to me. I 
am also informed, the people of Newport 
talk of fitting out an armed vessel to rescue 
any vessel the King's schooner may take car- 
rying on an illicit trade. Let them be cau* 
tious what they do for as sure as they at- 
tempt it and any of them are taken I will 
hang them as pirates." 

This was the threat which inspired the 
gathering at Sabin's tavern. A favourable 
opportunity to strike an effective blow was 
supplied by the grounding of the Gaspee 
about seven miles below Providence, while 
chasing the sloop Hannah commanded by 
Benjamin Lindsay. The Hannah continued 

124 



Some Rhode Island Taverns 

up the river and arrived about sunset at her 
wharf in Providence. Then, in the words 
of Col. Ephraim Bowen, one member of 
the Gaspee party, " Lindsey immediately in- 
formed Mr. John Brown, one of our first 
and most respectable merchants of the situa- 
tion of the Gaspee. He concluded that she 
would remain immovable until about mid- 
night, and that now an opportunity offered 
of putting an end to the trouble and vex- 
ation she daily caused. 

" Mr. Brown immediately resolved on 
her destruction, and he forthwith directed 
one of his trusty shipmasters to collect eight 
of the largest long boats in the harbor, 
with five oars each; to have the oars and 
row locks well muffled, to prevent noise and 
to place them at Fenner's wharf, directly 
opposite to the dwelling of Mr. James Sa- 
bin, who kept a house of board and enter- 
tainment for gentlemen. About the time of 
the shutting up of the shops, soon after sun- 
set, a man passed along the main street, beat- 
ing a drum, and informing the inhabitants 
of the fact that the Gaspee was aground on 
Namquit Point, and would not float ofip 
until three o'clock the next morning; and 
inviting those persons who felt a disposi- 

125 



Among Old New England Inns 

tion to go and destroy that troublesome ves- 
sel, to repair in the evening to Mr. James 
Sabin's house. 

" About nine o'clock I took my father's 
gun, and my powder horn and bullets and 
went to Mr. Sabin's, and found the southeast 
room full of people, where I loaded my 
gun and all remained there until about ten 
o'clock, some casting bullets in the kitchen 
and others making arrangements for depar- 
ture, when orders were given to cross the 
street to Fenner's wharf, and embark; which 
soon took place and a sea-captain acted as 
steersman of each boat; of whom I recol- 
lect Capt. Abraham Whipple, Capt. John 
B. Hopkins (with whom I embarked) and 
Capt. Benjamin Dunn. A line from left to 
right was soon formed, with Capt. Whipple 
on the right, and Capt. Hopkins on the 
right of the left wing. 

" The party thus proceeded until within 
about sixty yards of the Gaspee, when a 
sentinel hailed, ^ Who comes there?' No 
answer. He hailed again and no answer. 
In about a minute Dudingston mounted the 
starboard gunwale, in his shirt, and hailed, 
*Who comes there?' No answer. He 



126 



Some Rhode Island Taverns 

hailed again, when Capt. Whipple answered 
as follows: 

" ' I am the sheriff of the county of Kent 
[expletives]. I have got a warrant to ap- 
prehend you [ditto] so surrender !' 

" I took my seat on the main thwart, near 
the larboard row-lock, with my gun by my 
right side, facing forwards. 

'' As soon as Dudingston began to hail, 
Joseph Bucklin, who was standing on the 
main thwart, by my right side, said to me, 
' Eph, reach me your gun and I can kill that 
fellow.' I reached it to him accordingly; 
when, during Capt. Whipple's replying, 
Bucklin fired, and Dudingston fell; and 
Bucklin exclaimed, ' I have killed the ras- 
cal.' 

" In less than a minute after Capt Whip- 
ple's answer the boats were alongside of the 
Gaspee, and boarded without opposition. 
The men on deck retreated below as Dud- 
ingston entered the cabin. 

" As soon as it was discovered thatt he was 
wounded, John Mawney, who had for two 
or three years been studying physic and sur- 
gery, was ordered to go into the cabin and 
dress Dudingston's wounds and I was di- 
rected to assist him. . . . 

127 



Among Old New England Inns 

" Dudingston called for Mr. Dickinson 
to produce bandages and other necessaries 
for the dressing of the wound, and when 
finished, orders were given to the schooner's 
company to collect their clothing and every- 
thing belonging to them, and put them into 
the boats as all of them were to be sent on 
shore. All were soon collected and put 
on board of the boats, including one of our 
boats. They departed and landed Duding- 
ston at the old Still house wharf at Paw- 
tuxet, and put the chief into the house of 
Joseph Rhodes. Soon after, all the party 
were ordered to depart, leaving one boat 
for the leaders of the expedition; who soon 
set the vessel on fire, which consumed her 
to the water's edge." 

Col. Bowen's account of this affair, writ- 
ten when he was eighty-six years old, is 
illuminatingly supplemented by John Maw- 
ney's recollections of the night's work, pub- 
lished about 1825 in the Providence Ameri- 
can and Gazette. He heard the drummer 
passing through the streets, he tells us, and, 
attracted by the extraordinary announcement 
he was making, hurried to the Sabin Tav- 
ern. After some persuasion Mawney con- 
sented to join the expedition as surgeon; 

128 



Some Rhode Island Taverns 

and it is over his professional duties on the 
eventful evening that he lingers with most 
pride in his narrative. 

'' When I was summoned to the cabin," 
he says, ^' I found Lieut. Dudingston in a 
sitting posture, gently reclining to the left, 
bleeding profusely, with a thin white woollen 
blanket loose about him, which I threw 
aside, and discovered the eflfect of a musket 
ball in the left groin; and thinking the 
femoral artery was cut, threw open my 
waistband, and taking my shirt by the collar 
tore it, when Mr. Dudingston said, ^ Pray, 
sir, don't tear your clothes; there is linen 
in that trunk." 

Undoubtedly Mawney's work was skilful 
though he was only a student, for after the 
wound had been dressed Lieut. Dudingston 
offered him a gold stock-buckle as a testi- 
monial of his gratitude and when he refused 
to accept this urged upon him a silver one 
which he wore with pride until his death. 

Three days later the Providence Ameri- 
can and Gazette published the bare facts of 
the Gaspee's destruction, but hours before 
the press had presented the thing in outline 
the story was well known throughout the 
Colony and in neighbouring colonies as well. 

129 



Among Old New England Inns 

In that era the newspaper came straggling 
after instead of anticipating the events of 
the day. 

Of course every possible endeavour v^as 
made to apprehend the offenders, the initial 
reward of one hundred pounds sterling be- 
ing increased to five hundred pounds " to 
any person or persons who shall discover the 
persons guilty " and a hundred pounds addi- 
tional for the discovery and apprehension 
of the person '' who acted or called them- 
selves or were called by their accomplices 
the head sheriff or the captain." Notices 
of these rewards were freely distributed 
throughout the towns in the Colony but with- 
out other effect than that accorded the King's 
proclamation which was posted on the hay- 
scales near the northeast corner of the Mar- 
ket house, and which Mr. Joseph Aplin, a 
distinguished lawyer, struck down with his 
cane immediately after reading. Even the 
Royal Commission especially appointed to 
search out the participators in this bold deed 
could find out nothing! 

Yet the people of the town knew well 
about the details of the affair and such let- 
ters as this quoted by Mr. Edward Field 



130 



Some Rhode Island Taverns 

in his " History of Rhode Island " passed 
freely through the mails: 

'' Providence, Ye 23rd June 1772. 

" Dear Brother: 

" If I had no other motive to embrace 
this opportunity of writing to you yet grati- 
tude would oblige me. . . . Doubtless you 
have heard of the skirmish down the river, 
and of the burning of the armed Schooner 
and badly wounding the captain; so I shall 
write no more concerning the afifair (though 
I was on the wharf when the boats were 
manned and armed and knew the principal 
actors), lest it should be too much spread 
abroad; and perhaps you have seen the 
thundering proclamation in the newspaper 
and the reward of £100 sterling offered to any 
person or persons who shall discover the per- 
petrators of the said villainy, as it is called. 

" The clock strikes eleven. We take no 
note of time but from its loss. . . . 

'^ From your affectionate brother 
" and sincere friend 
Solomon Drown Junr." 

With Rhode Island's next brave strike in 
behalf of liberty the David Arnold Tav- 

131 



Among Old New England Inns 

ern at Old Warwick is connected. The 
deed in question was the capture of the 
British General Prescott by Major William 
Barton of Warren on the night of July 5, 
1777. 

For some six months previous to this, 
Providence had been in a state of most in- 
tense excitement owing to the arrival at 
Newport, early in December, of the British 
fleet and troops commanded by Sir Henry 
Clinton. To defend the inhabitants of the 
colonies from the depredations of the soldiers 
(who were wont to come on shore and in- 
dulge in the wildest kind of revelry) , and 
to guard against any surprise or attack on 
the town, state troops were posted at various 
points along the shores of Narragansett Bay. 
In the month of June, 1777, a regiment of 
Rhode Island troops, under the command 
of Col. Stanton, was stationed in the town 
of Tiverton. Maj. Barton was an officer 
of this regiment. 

Barton had previously served at Newport, 
and was familiar with the island and its sur- 
roundings as well as with the offenses which 
had been there committed by the men from 
the British ships. Moreover, he ardently 
admired Gen. Charles Lee, who was now 

132 



Some Rhode Island Taverns 

2i captive in the hands of the enemy. (Lee, 
it should be parenthetically explained, was 
not known for nearly a century later as " the 
most worthless character which the Revolu- 
tion brought to notice.") Resentment, then, 
against the British, a loyal zeal to rescue 
Lee, and desire to distinguish himself, were 
motives which worked together in Barton's 
mind, and caused him to carry out a plan 
second to none in the Revolution for bold- 
ness and adroit performance. 

Prescott, as Maj. Barton knew, frequently 
spent the night at the house of a man named 
Overing about five miles above Newport on 
the west road leading to Bristol Ferry. Be- 
cause Prescott's errand at this house was one 
of which he had no reason to be proud, the 
guard was only a slight one. Barton's plan, 
therefore, was to cross Narragansett Bay 
from the mainland, seize Prescott and carry 
him to the American camp. 

Not long after Barton had hit upon this 
idea, he received from a man named Coffin, 
who had escaped from the island, many de- 
tails concerning the Overing house. Thus 
he had at last sufficient information to enable 
him successfully to carry out his project. 
For a time he kept the plan to himself, but 



Among Old New Englmtd Inns 

at last he went to Col. Stanton and unfolded 
it to him. To his delight this officer prom- 
ised him all possible aid. Barton declined 
to explain to his friends the details and ob- 
ject of his night-errand so that the utmost 
confidence was called for on their part. 
This much, however, he did tell them; that 
it was necessary for the purpose of the mys- 
terious afTair, that five whale-boats be pro- 
vided. In a few days these were forth- 
coming. The only thing now needed was 
men. 

The regiment was ordered paraded, and 
the colonel having thus provided his subor- 
dinate with an opportunity to ask for volun- 
teers, forty, the necessary number, were 
quickly chosen. With them and the follow- 
ing order from his colonel, Barton pro- 
ceeded to do his work: 

" Headquarters Camp at Tiverton, 
" 5th July, 1777. 
" Lieut. Col. Barton, 
" You will proceed to the Island of New- 
port and attack the enemy when and where 
you think proper and make Report to me of 
your proceeding. 

"Jos: Stanton, Jr. Colo" 

134 



Some Rhode Island Taverns 

Not until two days after the beginning of 
active operations did Barton explain to his 
volunteers the nature of the enterprise upon 
which they had embarked! But though they 
were greatly astonished at the boldness of 
the plan, not one of them wished to with- 
draw, and it was, therefore, with the full 
quota of men that he proceeded with his 
perilous undertaking on the evening of July 
9th. No plunder, no liquor, silence and 
implicit obedience were the conditions im- 
posed as the forty-one men embarked on the 
five boats waiting at Warwick Neck with 
oars already muffled. Barton's boat took the 
lead. To distinguish it from the others a 
pole was set up on which was tied a white 
handkerchief. He was followed swiftly and 
silently as he made his way close to the west- 
ern shore of Prudence Island, taking care 
to avoid the enemy's ships, which lay near 
Hope Island. Yet they went quite near 
enough to hear the sentinel call in the black 
night ''All's well!" 

When the landing was made at that point 
on the shore nearest the Overing house, one 
man was left with each boat and instructed 
to push off in case any break in the plans 
should occur. Then the five divisions 

135 



Among Old New England Inns 

pushed on up to the house. There were 
three entrances and it was arranged that all 
were to be attacked while one group of men 
guarded the road and another acted on emer- 
gencies. 

No sooner was the front gate opened, 
however, than a sentinel advanced and de- 
manded, '' Who come there? " No reply was 
made and the party kept on; a second time 
the sentinel inquired, ''Who comes there?" 

" Friends," retorted Barton, who was now 
nearly up with the guard. 

" Advance and give the countersign," was 
the response. 

" We have none," said Barton, " but have 
you seen any deserters tonight? " 

This naive retort so surprised the guard 
that John Hunt, one of the party, was able 
to overpower the man and take away his 
gun before he had time to realize that these 
were enemies and not friends. Told to pre- 
serve silence under penalty of instant death, 
he became as one dumb. 

To enter the house and capture Prescott 
was the work of only a few moments, for 
Mr. Overing, much frightened, immediately 
indicated the room where he was soon found, 



136 



Some Rhode Island Taverns 

sitting in his nightclothes on the side of the 
bed. 

'' Are you General Prescott? " demanded 
Barton. 

" Yes," replied the man. 

" You are my prisoner." 

" I acknowledge it, sir," replied Prescott. 

The general was then told that he must 
accompany them at once, and, though he 
begged for time to dress, he was allowed 
opportunity to put on only a few garments. 
Time was very precious just then. Had 
Major Harrington, the generaPs aid, who in 
an attempt to give the alarm jumped from 
the window of the chamber where he had 
been sleeping, not been captured by the men 
outside, the whole affair might have mis- 
carried. 

There was none too much time as it was, 
for scarcely had the little party made their 
way through the meadows to the boats when 
three cannon and three rockets, the signal of 
alarm, came from the island; some of the 
household had spread the news and the 
whole camp was aroused. Barton and his 
party proceeded on their way unmolested, 
however, and Prescott said admiringly as 
they rowed past the British vessels lying at 

137 



Among Old New England Inns 

anchor, '' Sir, I did not think it possible you 
could escape the vigilance of the water- 
guards." 

From the landing-place to David Arnold's 
tavern at Warwick neck was not much of a 
walk, but Prescott, whose bare feet had been 
scratched by the blackberry vines in the 
meadow they had recently crossed, begged 
so hard for a pair of shoes that a pair was 
obtained for him from one of the officers at 
the Warwick neck station. Samuel Cory, 
of the expedition, was directed by Barton 
to take the shoes to the general and put them 
on. There was some difficulty about this as 
Prescott kept protesting that his feet were 
so swollen the shoes would not fit. " My 
orders were to put the shoes on General 
Prescott, not to see that they fitted," said 
Samuel grimly, as he vigorously executed 
the order. 

Upon their arrival at the tavern, the two 
prisoners were assigned rooms and carefully 
guarded. Next morning at breakfast Pres- 
cott ate little, and Mrs. Arnold, the land- 
lord's wife, thinking he did not like her 
fare, made some remark on the subject. But 
the British general assured her that he had 
no appetite. He likewise had no cravat, 

138 




DAVID ARNOLD TAVERN, WARWICK 




PELEG ARNOLD TAVERN, NEAR WOONSOCKET 



Some Rhode Island Taverns 

and Mrs. Arnold, noticing this, kindly gave 
him one of her best white handkerchiefs to 
remedy this defect of toilet. Soon after the 
morning meal, the two distinguished pris- 
oners were driven under guard to Provi- 
dence, in a coach General Spencer had sent 
out for this purpose. From Providence, 
Prescott was forwarded to General Washing- 
ton's headquarters in New Jersey, and in 
the spring he was exchanged for General 
Lee, as Barton had hoped would be the case. 
Peleg Arnold's tavern at what is now 
Union village, near Woonsocket, is another 
Revolutionary tavern rich in historic asso- 
ciations. As a house of entertainment the 
place dates back to 1739, when Lieut. 
Thomas Arnold, the father of Peleg, was 
licensed to keep a public house. Situated as 
it was on the '' Great Road " leading to 
Worcester, it was widely patronized by 
weary travellers, and when the father died 
in 1765 Peleg began to carry on the busi- 
ness. To his door, ten years later, rode a 
dusty messenger with the exciting news of 
Concord and Lexington, news which so 
aroused the tavern-keeper that throughout 
the Revolution his house was the centre of 
all the patriotic enterprises of that section. 

139 



Among Old New England Inns 

Here the town-meeting was held and here 
men were recruited for service in the army. 
Here, too, a little later, were deposited arms 
for distribution among the North Smith- 
field soldiery. When Peleg Arnold died, he 
had for many years been Chief Justice of 
the Supreme Court of Rhode Island. 

Another Justice Eleazer Arnold was also 
a Rhode Island tavern-keeper and a man of 
unusual qualities. His license to keep a 
public house is dated August 14, 1710, and 
the privilege then extended is thus formally 
recorded: 

" Whereas the Lawes do Provide that no 
Person Inhabiting on our CoUony shall 
keepe any Publick house of Entertainment 
for strangers, Travilers or others, nor Re- 
tale Strong drinke, unless they have a licence 
from the Councill of ye Respective Towne 
whereunto they do belong; And Whereas 
you Justice Eliezer Arnold Inhabitant of 
this Towne of Providence, in ye CoUoney 
of Rhode Island & Providence Plantations in 
New England haveing desired of ye Towne 
Councill of sd Providence that they Would 
Grant unto you a licence in order to that 
Purpose, whereby you might be in a Capac- 
itye to keepe a house of that Order & for 

140 



Some Rhode Island Taverns 

that imploy: The Towne Councill of said 
Providence being mett, & haveing Consid- 
ered your Request, and to ye end that stran- 
gers, Travilers & other Persons may be ac- 
comodated with suteable Entertainment at 
all times as Ocation Requires do by these 
presents Grant un to you ye abovesd Jus- 
tice Eliezer Arnold licence & libertye to 
keepe a Publick house of Entertainment in 
sd Providence Towneshipp at your dwell- 
ing, for the Entertaineing of Strangers, 
Travilers & other Persons, both horse and 
foote. Carters, Drovers, &c: at all times for 
& duiring the full & just Terme of one 
yeares Time forward from ye day of the 
date of these presents: And that at all times 
duiring the said Terme of time you do 
(within your Prescinks) well & truely Ob- 
serve, do & keepe good Orders according 
as ye lawes do Require Persons Who are 
licenced to keepe such houses to do & Per- 
forme. Dated August ye 14th: 1710." 

This old house has been designated for 
generations as " The Stone Chimney House " 
by reason of its huge fireplace and chimney 
of stone. It has been said that this form 
of construction was used on the side to the 
northwestward, north and northeastward to 

141 



Among Old New England Inns 

protect the house from the fire-arrows of 
Indians who dwelt in the primeval forest 
that there stretched out. This explanation, 
too, is given for the mortar-laid shingles on 
the roof. Unfortunately for the story, how- 
ever, there are facts to show us that the rela- 
tion between Eleazer Arnold and his red- 
men neighbours were most unusually 
friendly. Within the tavern when he died 
was " an old bed the Indians used to lie 
on!" 

For its time Justice Arnold's tavern was 
unusually spacious. It had four rooms on 
the lower floor and on the second floor were 
two chambers one of which contained a fire- 
place. The living-room was large and com- 
modious with its huge fireplace, the great 
" summer " beam upon which the guns were 
wont to be placed, and over the fireplace a 
strong eye-bolt to which could be attached a 
block and tackle to aid in hauling great logs 
to the fire. Mantelpieces, as one careful 
student of colonial days has pointed out, 
were no part of the interior furnishings of 
really old houses. '^ Whatever was arranged 
about the walls was hung on long hooks 
made of natural branches, fitted according 
to the ingenuity of the owner." The date of 

142 




ELEAZER ARNOLD TAVERN, NEAR QUINSNICKET, LINCOLN 




GREENVILLE TAVERN, SMITHFIELD 



Some Rhode Island Taverns 

this house is 1687, and here Justice Arnold 
long held his court. 

The Greenville Tavern, Smithfield, Rhode 
Island, dates back to 1730, and with its sec- 
ond-story piazza, overhanging roof and huge 
chimney certainly suggests old-time revel- 
ries and rom;antic rendezvous. Divers merry 
parties were wont to congregate in this old 
inn and sip flip or cheering toddy around 
its blazing fire. Mr. Edward Field quotes 
an ancient rhyme which throws into sharp 
relief one such congenially occupied group: 

** Landlord, to thy bar room skip. 
Make it a foaming mug of flip — 
Make it of our country's staple, 
Rum, New England sugar maple, 
Beer that's brewed from hops and Pumpkins, 
Grateful to the thirsty Bumpkins. 
Hark ! I hear the poker sizzle 
And O'er the mug the liquor drizzle. 
And against the earthen mug 
I hear the wooden spoon's cheerful dub. 
I see thee, landlord, taste the flip; 
And fling thy cud from under lip. 
Then pour more rum, the bottle stopping, 
Stir it again and say it's topping ; 
Come, quickly bring the humming liquor. 
Richer than ale of British vicar, 

143 



Among Old New England Inns 

Better than Usquebaugh Hibernian 

Or than Flacus' famed Falernian, 

More potent healthy, racy, frisky, 

Than Holland's gin or Georgia's whisky. 

Come, make a ring around the fire 

And hand the mug unto the squire; 

Here, Deacon, take the elbow chair, 

And Corporal Cuke, do you sit there; 

You take the dye tub, you the churn. 

And 1*11 the double corner turn. 

See the fomenting liquor rise 

And burn their cheeks and close their eyes; 

See the sidhng mug incline, 

Hear them curse their dull divine 

Who on Sunday dared to rail 

Against B — 's flip or Downer's ale 

Quick, landlord, fly and bring another. 

And Deacon H. shall pay for 'tother 

Ensign and I the third will share, 

Its due on swop for the pyeball mare." 

From this highly convivial verse, we dis- 
cover that though there w^as seldom much 
furniture in a typical tap-room, a flip-iron 
was an indispensable fixture. This, when 
heated, gave to certain mixtures a burnt, 
bitter flavour which was much liked. The 
ingredients stirred together varied in dif- 
ferent parts of the colonies but one much 

144 



Some Rhode Island Taverns 

approved by Rhode Island palates consisted 
of home-brewed beer sweetened with sugar 
molasses or dried pumpkin and flavoured 
with a liberal dash of rum. 

An era which could enjoy such barbarous 
drinks not unnaturally encouraged barba- 
rous customs. Certainly no softer adjective 
may fitly characterize the shift marriages 
which took place in Rhode Island, not far 
from one of the taverns we have here been 
discussing. In the records of the town of 
Warwick appears the following entry: 

" These are to signify unto all ministers 
of justice that Henry Strait Jun of East 
Greenwich in ye colony of R. I. and Prov. 
Plantation took Mary Webb of ye town of 
Warwick in ye colony afousd. widow in only 
a shift and no other Garment in ye presns 
of Avis Gordon May Collins and Presilar 
Crandall and was Lawfully Married in sd 
Warwick ye first of August 1725 by me 
Recorded ye 5th of Nov 1725 Pr John 
Wickes T. C." 

In South Kingstown this same curious 
custom prevailed and it is there recorded 
that " Thomas Cullenwell was joyned in 
Marriage to Abigaile his wife the 22d of 
February 1719-20. He took her in marriage 

145 



Among Old New England Inns 

after she had gone four times across the 
Highway in only her shift and hair lace and 
no other clothing. Joyned togather, in mar- 
riage per me George Hassard Just." 

The third record, which is somewhat 
fuller, shows us what this extraordinary 
wedding custom meant to its participants: 

'^ In the town of Newport in the Colony 
of Rhode Island and on the 13th of Sep- 
tember 1 7 14 John Gavett of the town and 
county above said did meet with Sarah 
Stephenson, widow, in the street within the 
town abovesaid stark naked save only her 
shift and they being lawfully published the 
said John Gavett did accept in marriage the 
above said Sarah Stephenson stark naked 
save only her shift without housing or lands 
or any personal state whatever, and in said 
street I did join together in marriage the 
above said John Gavett and Sarah Stephen- 
son on the day and year above said as wit- 
ness my hand and seal hereto affixed. 

" Nath'l Sheffield Assistant." 

Let it not be thought, however, that this 
custom was peculiar to Rhode Island. Such 
was far from being the case ; shift marriages 

146 



Some Rhode Island Taverns 

for the purpose of escaping the debts con- 
tracted by the bride's deceased husband took 
place in many of the colonies, — certainly 
in Pennsylvania and in all the New Eng- 
land states. And a pitiful commentary they 
are upon the crude civilization of our tav- 
ern-loving forbears. 



ur 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE TAVERNS THAT ENTERTAINED WASH- 
INGTON 

Of all the distinguished guests with whose 
names tavern traditions are proudly linked, 
Washington is, of course, the most eminent. 
The tavern that can boast of having given 
him shelter for a night has ten times the 
chance of preservation accorded the ordi- 
nary old building. One writer indeed be- 
lieves that the Washington tavern business 
is greatly overdone and, in speaking of an 
inn interesting chiefly for its age, points out 
triumphantly that it is " innocent of Wash- 
ington associations." Just here, however, 
we will take the other tack and trace care- 
fully the hostelries honoured by the Presi- 
dent's party during his official visits to New 
England. 

"Thurs. Oct. 15, 1789," says his Diary, 
" I commenced my journey about 9 o'clock 
for Boston and a tour through the Eastern 

148 



Taverns That Entertained Washington 

States. The Chief Justice, Mr. Jay — and 
the secretaries of the Treasury and War 
Departments accompanied me some distance 
out of the city. About lo o'clock it began 
to Rain and continued to do so till ii, when 
we arrived at the house of one Hoyatt, who 
keeps a Tavern at Kingsbridge, where we, 
that is, Major Jackson, Mr. Lear and my- 
self with six servants, which composed my 
Retinue dined. After dinner, through fre- 
quent light showers we proceed'd to the Tav- 
ern of Mrs. Haviland at Rye. . . . Oct. i6 
About 7 o'clock we left the Widow Havi- 
land's and after passing Horse Neck, six 
miles from Rye, we breakfasted at Stam- 
ford [Connecticut] which is 6 miles fur- 
ther. At Norwalk, which is six miles fur- 
ther we made a halt to feed our horses. . . . 
From thence to Fairfield where we dined 
and lodged, is 12 miles. October 17. — A 
little after sunrise we left Fairfield, and 
passing through Et. Fairfield, breakfasted 
at Stratford, which is ten miles from Fair- 
field. ... At this place I was received with 
an effort of Military parade; and was at- 
tended to the Ferry, which is near a mile 
from the center of the Town, by sevl. Gen- 
tlemen on horseback. . . . From the ferry 

149 



Among Old New England Inns 

is about 3 miles to Milford." The tavern in 
Milford, — now no longer standing, — was 
kept by Andrew Clark, — and not very well 
kept either. Lambert's history tells us that, 
during his New England tour of 1789, 
Washington twice put up here. The house 
had been opened very early in the town's 
history by one Tomlinson who, in 1656, was 
sued by the authorities because " he had 
broken the jurisdiction order by selling 
strong water, wine and beer at greater prices 
than was allowed, and kept a disorderly 
house in that he suffered young men and 
maids to come there and dance and play at 
shuffle board." Washington's criticism of 
the house was that he did not find the food 
good, — and that it had no silver spoons! 
Not much relishing his supper of boiled 
meat and potatoes, he called for a bowl of 
milk, which was brought him, with a pewter 
spoon that lacked a handle. He asked for 
a silver spoon, but was told the house af- 
forded none, whereupon he gave the servant- 
maid a two-shilling piece and told her to go 
and borrow one. She accordingly borrowed 
one for him at the minister's. 

^ From Milford," the Diary continues, 
*' we took the lower road through West 

ISO 



Taverns That Entertained Washington 

Haven and arrived at New Haven before 
two o'clock; we had time to walk through 
several parts of the City before Dinner. . . . 
The Address (of the Assembly) was pre- 
sented at 7 o'clock and at nine I received 
another address from the Congregational 
Clergy of the place. Between the rect. of 
the two addresses I received the Compli- 
ment of a visit from the Govr. Mr. Hunt- 
ington — the Lieut. Gov. Mr. Wolcott — 
and the Mayor Mr. Roger Sherman." 

Sunday finds the President enjoying the 
hospitality of the town's best tavern. *' Went 
in the forenoon to the Episcopal church," 
the Diary records, " and in the afternoon to 
one of the Congregational Meeting-Houses. 
Attended to the first by the speaker of the 
Assembly, Mr. Edwards, and a Mr. Inger- 
soU, and to the latter by the Governor, the 
Lieut. Governor, the Mayor and Speaker. 
These gentlemen all dined with me (by in- 
vitation) as did Genl. Huntington, at the 
House of Mr. Brown, where I lodged, and 
who keeps a good Tavern. Drank tea at the 
Mayor's. ... At 7 O'clock in the evening 
many Officers of this State, belonging to the 
late Continental army, called to pay their 
respects to me." 

151 



Among Old New England Inns 

The keeper of this " good tavern " had 
not been very long in the business, it ap- 
pears, for in the columns of the Connecticut 
Journal for April, 1786, we find the follow- 
ing: "Jacob Brown, one of the proprietors 
of the stages, informs the public that he has 
opened a house of entertainment in the City 
of New Haven." " This house must have 
faced the Green," says Mr. Henry T. Blake, 
secretary of the New Haven Colony His- 
torical Society, " for in May, 1787, Mr. 
Brown advertised that ' he has removed 
from the house lately occupied on the Green 
to Colonel Hubbard's elegant stone house 
near the old market where those who wish 
to take passage in the stage and others may 
be decently entertained.' " This second house 
it was to which Washington came, and it 
is still standing at the junction of Church, 
George and Meadow streets. To-day, too, 
as in Washington's time it dispenses liquid 
refreshments. Only now its wares are served 
without lodging, over the counter, by the 
glass, — and they are of Teutonic appeal. 
The house was built by Dr. Hubbard, who 
died in 1794, and was, in its day, one of the 
most elegant private residences of the town. 

That Saturday evening of Washington's 

152 



Taverns That Entertained Washington 

visit it was again thronged with handsomely- 
dressed gentlemen. A constant succession of 
civic, ecclesiastical and military dignities 
streamed through its spacious parlours. At 
seven the Committee of the Legislature ap- 
peared; at eight the Governor and the 
mayor made their bows and at nine the Rev- 
erend President of the College and the Con- 
gregational ministers arrived. Later numer- 
ous worthy citizens of the town paid their 
respects to the nation's head. 

After the Sunday dinner at Brown's to 
which the Diary refers, the President heard 
the great Jonathan Edwards preach. His 
entertainers had expected that the distin- 
guished theologian would furnish a sermon 
suitable to the extraordinary occasion, but 
Edwards, with characteristic other-worldli- 
ness announced that his text was, " Train 
up a Child in the way he should go and 
when he is old he will not depart from it." 
He added immediately that, in speaking on 
these sacred words, he would address himself 
principally to the children in the galleries! 
In this connection it is pleasant to find a 
charming story of the President's encounter, 
that afternoon, with one of those very chil- 
dren. He went, as the Diary records, to 

IS3 



Among Old New England Inns 

drink tea with the Mayor, Mr. Sherman. 
Roger Sherman's house is still standing, on 
Chapel street, next to the Union League 
Club building. Its door on that faraway 
occasion was opened, as the President was 
leaving, by Mr. Sherman's little daughter 
Mehitabel. Washington, putting his hand 
on her head remarked kindly, " You deserve 
a better office, my little lady!" "Yes, sir," 
she replied with a courtesy, " to let you in." 
One earlier visit to New Haven the Pres- 
ident had made. This was in the summer 
of 1775, when on his way to take command 
of the Continental forces at Cambridge. On 
this occasion he stopped at the house of 
Isaac Beers, then situated on the lot where 
the New Haven House now stands. The 
proprietor was the son of Mr. Nathan Beers, 
who was killed in his own house by the Brit- 
ish troops during their invasion of New 
Haven in 1779. The house had been kept 
by Mr. Beers as a place of public entertain- 
ment since about 1760; and until he retired 
from inn-keeping in 1778 was the most prom- 
inent hostelry in New Haven. Public din- 
ners were frequently held here, and John 
Adams records that when he stopped there 
in 1774 on his way to the Continental Con- 

154 



Taverns That Entertained IVashington 

gress he " talked of politics with Mr. Beers." 
While Washington was a guest at this house 
he was aroused very early in the morn- 
ing to review the company of one hundred 
and sixty Yale students which had been 
formed, soon after the battle of Lexington, 
to serve the cause of the United Colonies. 

'' Left New Haven at 6 O'clock," we find 
to be the entry of October 19, " and arrived 
at Wallingford (13 miles) by half after 8 
o'clock, where we breakfasted and took a 
walk through the Town. . . . About 10 
o'clock we left this place, and at the dis- 
tance of 8 miles passed through Durham. 
At one we arrived at Middletown, on Con- 
necticut River, being met two or three miles 
from it by the respectable citizens of the 
place, and escorted in by them. While din- 
ner was getting ready I took a walk around 
the Town from the heights of which the 
prospect is beautiful. . . . Having dined, 
we set out with the same escort (who con- 
ducted us into town about three o'clock for 
Hartford, and passing through a Parish of 
Middletown and Weathersfield we arrived 
at Harfd. about sundown. At Weathersfield 
we were met by a party of the Hartford 
light horse and a number of Gentlemen 



Among Old New England Inns 

from the same place with Col^ Wadsworth 
at their head, and escorted to Bull's Tavern 
where we lodged." 

This tavern, the most noted in Hartford, 
was called the Bunch of Grapes from its 
carved sign bearing that device. It stood 
at or near the point of intersection of Asy- 
lum street with the west side of Main street. 

M. de Chastellux, who visited the house 
during the Revolutionary War, commented 
on it as ^' a very good inn; kept by Mr. 
Bull, who is accused of being rather on the 
other side of the question; a polite method 
of designating a tory." 

The punctiliousness with which Wash- 
ington fulfilled all his engagements in the 
course of this triumphal tour is very im- 
pressive. Occasionally, of course, the 
weather interfered with plans made but 
when such was the case we find the matter 
carefully explained in the Diary. Accord- 
ingly there is recorded on Wednesday, Oc- 
tober 21, " By promise I was to have Break- 
fasted at Mr. Ellsworth's at Windsor, on 
my way to Springfield, but the morning 
proving very wet, and the rain not ceasing 
till past ten o'clock, I did not set out until 
half after that hour; I called, however, on 

156 



Taverns That Entertained Washington 

Mr. Ellsworth and stay'd there near an hour 
— reached Springfield by 4 o'clock, and 
while dinner was getting, examined the Con- 
tinental Stores at this place. A CoK Worth- 
ington, Colo. Williams, Adjutant General of 
the State of Massachusetts, Gen. Shepherd, 
Mr. Lyman and many other Gentlemen sat 
an hour or two with me in the evening at 
Parson's Tavern, where I lodged, and which 
is a good House." 

Until ten years ago this building stood at 
the west end of Court street though sadly 
shorn of its barns, sheds and dance-hall, all 
of which were prominent features in Wash- 
ington's day. At that time it was a huge, 
rambling, unpainted structure with a lofty 
wing, which, when afterwards detached, was 
called the " light-house." Zenas Parsons 
was succeeded as landlord by Eleazer Will- 
iams and when James Monroe came to 
Springfield, early in his presidency, he 
found John Bennett in charge. Soon after- 
wards, the property was sold to Erastus 
Chapin, and, in 18 19, a company of public- 
spirited townspeople bought its site for a 
square and moved the main part of the old 
tavern to its last resting-place at the foot of 
Court Street. 

157 



Among Old New England Inns 

For the President's party in 1789, Palmer 
was the next stop, breakfast being taken ^' at 
the House of one Scott." This tavern is 
sometimes called " Scots at the Elbow," 
probably from its situation near the " ford " 
afterwards the '' bridge " over the Quabog 
river. It was for many years a very famous 
inn. 

Brookfield came next in the itinerary and 
the tavern which had the honour of enter- 
taining Washington at dinner (October 23, 
1789) is still standing, near the centre of 
West Brookfield village, directly on the 
main street. Built in 1760 by David Hitch- 
cock, it was occupied by him as a hostelry 
till 181 1. He, therefore, was the host at 
Washington's visit. Ten years later he en- 
tertained for the night another President, 
John Adams, on his way to Quincy, his 
home-town. Lafayette was entertained here 
in 1825 and there is a tradition that Jerome 
Bonaparte and his lovely American wife 
passed a night here soon after their mar- 
riage. Nowadays the tavern is a favourite 
resort of automobile parties, who find its 
combination of old-time atmosphere with 
modern improvements, of fragrant tradi- 
tions with excellent food very attractive. 

158 



Taverns That Entertained JVashington 

This is, indeed, one of the few '^ taverns 
that entertained Washington " which I can 
cordially recommend to the twentieth-cen- 
tury wayfarer. Most of them are not inns 
any longer, and of such as are, the least said 
the better, — too often. 

From Brookfield, — where the President 
received an '' Express which was sent to me 
by Govr. Hancock giving notice of the meas- 
ures he was about to pursue for my recep- 
tion on the Road and in Boston, with a 
request to lodge at his House," the party 
pressed on '' to Spencer, lo miles further, 
and lodged at the House of one Jenks, who 
keeps a pretty good tavern." 

The bread at this tavern was particularly 
good, if one may trust the landlord's wife; 
she used to tell the story that the General 
at breakfast remarked, '' Madam, your bread 
is very beautiful." 

'^ Commenced our course with the Sun," 
says the Diary on October 23, " and passing 
through Leicester met some Gentlemen of 
the Town of Worcester, on the line between 
it and the former to escort us. . . . We were 
received by a handsome Company of Militia 
Artillery in Uniform, who saluted with 13 
Guns on our entry and departure. At this 

159 



Among Old New England Inns 

place also we met a Committee from the 
Town of Boston . . . On the Line between 
Worcester and Middlesex I was met by a 
troop of light Horse belonging to the latter, 
who escorted me to Marlborough, where 
we dined, and thence to Weston where we 
lodged." 

Washington's stopping-place in Marlbor- 
ough still welcomes guests; and to-day, as 
in his time, it is known as the Williams Tav- 
ern. Erected in 1665 by Abraham Will- 
iams, it has ever since been a popular resort 
for travellers. In early days court was held 
here, and the old-time cells may still be seen 
in the basement. The Duke de la Roche- 
foucault was once entertained here, and 
when Landlord Pease — of whom we have 
already heard — started his first line of 
mail-coaches in 1786 this house was one of 
the principal stopping-places on the mail 
route between Boston and New York. 

The Weston tavern patronized by Wash- 
ington in 1789 was that of John Flagg. 

" On October 24," the Diary continues, 
" dressed by Seven o'clock, and set out at 
eight — at ten we arrived in Cambridge, 
according to appointment; but most of the 
Militia having a distance to come, were not 

160 



Taverns That Entertained Washington 

in line till after eleven; they made however 
an excellent appearance, with Genl. [John] 
Brooks at their Head. At this place the 
Lieut. Govr. Mr. Saml. Adams, with the 
Executive Council, met me and preceded 
my entrance into town — which was in every 
degree flattering and honourable. To pass 
over the Minutiae of the arrangement for 
this purpose, it may suffice to say that at the 
entrance I was welcomed by the Selectmen 
in a body. Then following the Liet Govr. 
and Council in the order we came from 
Cambridge (preceded by the Town Corps, 
very handsomely dressed), we passed through 
the Citizens classed in their dififerent pro- 
fessions, and under their own banners, till 
we came to the State House; from which 
across the Street an Arch was thrown; in 
the front of which was this Inscription — 
* To the Man who unites all hearts ' — and 
on the other — * To Columbia's favorite 
Son ' — and on one side thereof next the 
State House, in a pannel decorated with a 
trophy, composed of the Arms of the United 
States — of the Commonwealth of Massa- 
chusetts — and our French Allies, crowned 
with a wreath of Laurel^ was this Inscrip- 
tion — * Boston relieved March 17th, 1776.' 

161 



Among Old New England Inns 

This Arch was handsomely ornamented, and 
over the Center of it a Canopy was erected 
20 feet high, with the American Eagle 
perched on the top. After passing through 
the Arch, and entering the State House at 
the S^ End and ascending to the upper 
floor and returning to a Balcony at the N^ 
end; three cheers was given by a vast con- 
course of people who by this time had as- 
sembled at the Arch — then followed an ode 
composed in honour of the President; and 
well sung by a band of select singers — 
after this three Cheers — followed by the 
different Professions and Mechanics in the 
order they were drawn up with their col- 
ours through a lane of the People, which 
had thronged abt. the Arch under which 
they passed. The Streets, the Doors, win- 
dows and tops of the Houses were crowded 
with well dressed Ladies and Gentlemen. 
The procession being over, I was conducted 
to my lodgings at a Widow Ingersoll's, 
(which is a very decent and good house) by 
the Lieut. Govr. and Council — accom- 
panied by the Vice President, where they 
took leave of me. Having engaged yester- 
day to take an informal dinner with the 
Govr. [John Hancock] to-day, but under a 

162 



Taverns That Entertained Washington 

full persuasion that he would have waited 
upon me so soon as I should have arrived 
— I excused myself upon his not doing it, 
and informing me thro' his Secretary that 
he was too much indisposed to do it, being 
resolved to receive the visit. Dined at my 
Lodgings, where the Vice-President favored 
me with his Company." 

"Oct. 25. — Attended Divine Service at 
the Episcopal Church whereof Dr. Parker is 
the Incumbent in the forenoon and the Con- 
gregational Church of Mr. Thatcher in the 
afternoon. Dined at my lodgings with the 
Vice-President. Mr. Bowdoin accompanied 
me to both Churches. Between the two I 
received a visit from the Govr. who assured 
me that indisposition alone prevented his 
doing it yesterday, and that he was still in- 
disposed; but as it had been suggested that 
he expected to receive the visit from the 
President which he knew was improper, he 
was resolved at all haz'ds to pay his Com- 
pliments to-day. 

" Oct. 26. — The day being Rainy and 
Stormy, myself much disordered by a cold 
and inflammation in the left eye, I was pre- 
vented from visiting Lexington (where the 
first blood in the dispute with G. Brit'n was 

163 



Among Old New England Inns 

drawn). Rec'd the Complim'ts of many 
visits today. Mr. Dalton and Genl. Cobb 
dined with me, and in the Evening drank 
Tea with Govr. Hancock and called upon 
Mr. Bowdoin on my return to my lodgings. 

" Oct. 27. — At ten o'clock in the morn- 
ing received the visits of the Clergy of the 
Town; at eleven I went to an Oratorio (at 
King's Chapel) and between that and 3 
o'clock rec'd the Addresses of the Govr. and 
Council — of the Town of Boston — of the 
President etc. of Harvard College and of 
the Cincinnati of the State; after wch at 
3 o'clock I dined at a large and elegant Din- 
ner at Faneuil Hall, given by the Govr. 
and Council, and spent the evening at my 
lodgings." 

The evident satisfaction with which Wash- 
ington throughout his Boston stay refers to 
" my lodgings " is particularly interesting 
when one recalls that underneath this phrase 
lurks a sly thrust at pompous John Hancock. 
On the raw chill day of the President's ar- 
rival the Governor's suite and a throng of 
the townspeople were on hand to welcome 
him, but the Governor himself failed to 
put in an appearance. He did not wish to 
recognize a superior personage within his 

164 



Taverns That Entertained Washington 

olBcial jurisdiction! Consequently he al- 
lowed the crowds to contract what was for 
years known as " the Washington cold " 
while awaiting him. But Washington had 
as high a sense of personal dignity as did 
Hancock; he had also a much nicer appre- 
ciation of when it is improper to show per- 
sonal pique. Finally, therefore, he rode be- 
tween the throngs on State street, past the 
State House to his cold dinner at Mrs. In- 
gersoll's on Tremont street near what is now 
Scollay square. And there all that day he 
kept his room, refusing flatly an invitation 
to dine with Hancock. The following morn- 
ing the Governor realized his fiasco and, 
though suffering from gout, caused himself 
to be carried to IngersoU's to present his 
apologies in person. Madame Hancock al- 
ways insisted that her husband was really 
too ill to leave his house on the day of 
Washington's entry, but the impression that 
Hancock intended to slight the man who 
had been elevated, instead of him, to the 
place of President has none the less endured. 
The one person who came out of the affair 
with flying colours appears to have been the 
cook at IngersoU's who, at the last minute, 
secured some very excellent fish for the dis- 

165 



Among Old New E^tgland Inns 

tinguished guest's dinner and so saved the 
credit of Boston hospitality. 

The boarding-house thus honoured stood 
at the juncture of Tremont and Court streets 
for many years. If its walls could have 
spoken, we should have for quotation a de- 
licious description of that historic encounter 
between Hancock and Washington the day 
after the President's arrival! The visit was 
preceded by the following note: 

" Sunday 26th October, 
" half-past twelve o'clock. 
" The Governor's best respects to the 
President. If at home and at leisure, the 
Governor will do himself the honor to pay 
his respects in half an hour. This would 
have been done much sooner had his health 
in any degree permitted. He now hazards 
everything, as it respects his health, for the 
desirable purpose." 

To which the President replied : — 

" Sunday, 26th October, one o'clock. 
" The President of the United States pre- 
sents his best respects to the Governor, and 
has the honor to inform him that he shall 

166 



Taverns That Entertained Washington 

be at home till two o'clock. The President 
need not express the pleasure it will give 
him to see the Governor; but, at the same 
time, he most earnestly begs that the Gov- 
ernor will not hazard his health on the occa- 
sion." 

When Hancock arrived, swathed in red 
flannel, and was carried by two men into the 
President's drawing-room Washington was 
most gracious, however. He gave full 
weight to the excuse of unmerciful gout and, 
in the afternoon, returned the visit with all 
courteous haste. But he returned to his 
lodgings to sleep, though Hancock had ex- 
tended, and he had accepted, an invitation to 
be his guest while in Boston. 

Salem was the next town which the Pres- 
ident honoured with his presence for a 
time. His description of the journey thither 
is interesting: ^^ October 29. Left Boston 
about 8 o'clock. Passed over the Bridge at 
Charles-town, and went to see that at Mai- 
den, but proceeded to the College at Cam- 
bridge, attended by the Vice-President, Mr. 
Bowdoin, and a great number of Gentle- 
men. . . . From Boston, besides the number 
of citizens which accompanied me to Cam- 

167 



Among Old New England Inns 

bridge, and many of them from thence to 
Lynn — the Boston Corps of Horse escorted 
me to the line between Middlesex and Essex 
County, where a party of horse with Genl 
Titcomb met me and conducted me through 
Marblehead to Salem. ... At the Bridge, 
2 miles from this town, we were also met by 
a Committee, who conducted us by a Bri- 
gade of the Militia and one or two hand- 
some Corps in Uniform, through several of 
the streets to the Town or Court House, 
where an Ode in honor of the President 
was sung — an Address presented to him 
amidst the acclamations of the People; after 
which he was conducted to his Lodgings. 
Rec'd the Compliments of many different 
classes of People and in the evening, be- 
tween 7 and 8 o'clock went to an Assembly, 
where there was at least an hundred hand- 
some and well-dressed Ladies. Abt. nine re- 
turned to my Lodgings." 

The house from whose balcony Washing- 
ton made his first bow to Salem' people was 
that of Abijah Northey. But he passed the 
night at the private residence of Joshua 
Ward, — a building now numbered 148 
Washington street, — in a room on the sec- 
ond story behind the ivy-covered wall. To- 

168 



Taverns That Entertained Washington 

day the place is called Hotel Washington, in 
honour of the distinguished visitor it once 
entertained. 

Washington went to Ipswich also. In the 
Diary we find the following allusions to his 
visit: "Friday October 30, 1789. From 
this place (Beverly) with escorts of Horse 
I passed on to Ipswich, about ten miles; at 
the entrance of which I was met and wel- 
comed by the Selectmen, and received by a 
Regm't of Militia. At this place I was met 
by Mr. Dalton and some other gentlemen 
from Newburyport; partook of a cold col- 
lation and proceeded on to the last-men- 
tioned place, where I was received with 
much respect and parade about four o'clock." 

J. B. Felt, the Ipswich historian, writing 
in 1834 while many still remembered the 
particulars of Washington's visit, remarks: 
'' George Washington is escorted into town, 
receives a short address; dines at the inn, 
then kept by Mrs. Homans; reviews a regi- 
ment mustered to honor him; is visited by 
many; stays three hours and leaves for New- 
bury, through lines of a multitude compris- 
ing both sexes of all ages, who had assem- 
bled to give him, with deep emotions of 
gratitude, a welcome and a parting look." 

169 



Among Old New England Inns 

The Ipswich tavern thus honoured above 
its fellows was built in 1693 or thereabouts, 
and was first used as a tavern in 1724 by 
Increase How, whose widowed daughter, 
Susanna Swasey, there carried on the inn 
for many years, marrying meanwhile Capt. 
George Stacey of Marblehead (June 30, 
1763) and afterwards, Capt. Richard Ro- 
man of the same town. Upon Mrs. Homan's 
death, her stepson, George Stacey of Bidde- 
ford, conveyed to her son. Major Joseph 
Swasey, his interest in the tavern. The 
major had served with honour in the Revo- 
lutionary War, and Swasey's Tavern was 
for many years a notable feature of the town. 
Its taverner was town clerk as well and be- 
cause of his sudden death during the prog- 
ress of a town meeting (April, 18 16) was 
long remembered in Ipswich. In 1805, his 
tavern became the property of John Heard, 
whose son Augustine sold the place to Zenas 
Gushing, from whose heirs it was purchased 
by Dr. William E. Tucker, the present 
owner. Originally the house was three- 
storied and hip-roofed, but it has been so 
remodelled that no trace of its antiquity 
remains. 

In Newburyport, Washington was greeted 
170 



Taverns That Entertained Washington 

with overwhelming enthusiasm. The Essex 
Journal and New Hampshire Packet of 
November fourth reports the visit thus, 
'^Friday last the BELOVED PRESI- 
DENT OF THE UNITED STATES 
made his entry into this town; and never 
did a person appear here, who more largely 
shared the affection and esteem of its citi- 
zens. He was escorted here by two com- 
panies of cavalry, from Ipswich and An- 
dover, Marshall Jackson, the High Sheriff 
of the County of Essex, the Hon. Tristram 
Dalton, Esq., Major General Titcomb, and 
a number of other officers, as well as several 
gentlemen from this and neighboring towns. 
On his drawing near, he was saluted with 
thirteen discharges from the artillery after 
which, a number of young gentlemen placed 
themselves before him, and sang as follows: 

"*He comes! he comes! the Hero comes! 

Sound, sound your trumpets, beat, beat your drums; 
From port to port let cannons roar. 
He's welcome to New England shore. 
Welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome 
Welcome to New England's shore.' 

" The lines in the first verse which call for 
the beating of drums and roaring of cannon 

171 



Among Old New England Inns 

were instantly obeyed after the pronuncia- 
tion of each word: and to the vocal was 
joined all the instrumental music in both 
choruses, which were repeated : — Then the 
President, preceded by the several compa- 
nies of Militia and artillery of this town, the 
musicians, selectmen, High Sherifif, and 
Marshall Jackson, . . . passed to the house 
prepared for his reception. Here a feu de 
joy was fired by several companies of mili- 
tia." 

The Newburyport house which extended 
hospitality to Washington is still standing, 
and is now the public library of the town. 
Up to the time of Washington's visit, its 
owner had been Nathaniel Tracy, an inter- 
esting character who made vast sums during 
the Revolutionary War from his fleet of 
privateers. Besides this elegant home on 
State street, he at one time owned Craigie 
House in Cambridge, well known as Wash- 
ington's headquarters and the home of the 
poet Longfellow. Tracy's cellars were al- 
ways stocked with the choicest wines and all 
the appointments of his table were sumptu- 
ous in the extreme. Thomas Jefferson often 
stayed with him, and many other distin- 
guished people were glad to visit at his 

172 



Taverns That Entertained Washington 

home. But, just before Washington's visit, 
he became hopelessly involved in financial 
difficulties and selling his estates, retired to 
his farm-mansion near-by. Thus it was that 
the house which his father, Patrick Tracy, 
had built for him, passed temporarily into 
the hands of the Honourable Jonathan Jack- 
son, Patrick's son-in-law; and since it was 
to Jackson's care as United States marshal 
that arrangements for Washington's Massa- 
chusetts visit had been entrusted, some of 
the unoccupied rooms in this house were 
furnished and made ready for the accommo- 
dation of the town's eminent visitor. 

From Newburyport the President pro- 
ceeded to Portsmouth '' and was received," 
says the Diary, " by the President of the 
State of New Hampshire, the Vice-Presi- 
dent, some of the Council — Messrs Lang- 
don and Wingate of the Senate, Col^ Parker, 
Marshall of the State and many other re- 
spectable characters; besides several Troops 
of well cloathed Horse in handsome Uni- 
forms and many officers of the Militia also 
in handsome (red and white) uniforms of 
the Manufacture of the State. With this 
cavalcade we proceeded, and arrived before 
3 o'clock at Portsmouth where we were re- 

173 



Among Old New England Inns 

ceived with every token of respect and ap- 
pearance of cordiality, under a discharge 
of artillery. The streets, doors and windows 
were crowded here as at all the other places; 
and alighting at the Town House odes were 
sung and played in honor of the President. 
The same happened yesterday at my entrance 
into Newbury port. . . . From the Town 
House I went to Colonel Brewster's Ta'n, 
the place provided for my residence." This 
house is no longer standing, having burnt 
down in 1813 after a very interesting and 
varied career described at length in the 
chapter devoted to Portsmouth Taverns. 

In none of the New England towns he 
visited, did Washington enjoy himself more 
than at Portsmouth. On the evening of his 
arrival the State House was beautifully il- 
luminated and rockets were let off from the 
balcony. The next morning found him at- 
tending divine service at the Queen's Chapel, 
and in the afternoon he listened to a lauda- 
tory address delivered by Dr. Buckminster 
at the North Church. On Monday the 
President went on an excursion down the 
harbour in a barge rowed by seamen dressed 
in white frocks and accompanied by another 
barge containing an amateur band which 

^4 



Taverns That Entertained Washington 

" did their possible " at frequent intervals. 
The Diary says that '' having lines, v^e pro- 
ceeded to the fishing banks a little without 
the harbor and fished for cod, — but it not 
being of proper time of tide, we only caught 
two, — with which about ten o'clock we re- 
turned to town." 

Of those two trophies Washington drew 
from the water but one. The other was 
hooked by Zebulon Willey, who was fishing 
in the vicinity and who, when he observed 
the President's bad luck, came alongside and 
handed over his line with a big one already 
on it waiting to be hauled in. It proved 
to be a very good pull for Zebulon, for the 
President gave him a silver dollar and all 
his after life he had a first-rate fish story 
to tell. 

When the lines had been finally drawn up, 
the distinguished guest was rowed by the 
white-jacketed sailors straight to the hos- 
pitable vine-hung door, at Little Harbour, 
of Colonel Michael Wentworth and his 
wife who had been Martha Hilton. From 
this point they returned to town by carriages, 
passing, on the way, the residence of Cap- 
tain John Blunt who had first met Washing- 
ton on the famous " Crossing the Delaware " 

175 



Among Old New England Inns 

occasion. Blunt had for many years owned 
and sailed a coasting-vessel which plied be- 
tween Portsmouth and Philadelphia, and he 
knew the Delaware nearly as well as the 
Piscataqua. Accordingly, when Washing- 
ton, that winter day, observed the floating 
ice of the river, and asked if there were no 
one in the boat acquainted with the stream, 
Blunt's name was immediately spoken, and 
he was personally requested by the Presi- 
dent to take the helm. Undoubtedly, there- 
fore, there were pleasant reminiscences in- 
terchanged when the President and his pilot 
met again in 1789 on the Little Harbour 
road. Dinner and tea that day were taken 
at the beautiful Langdon home. 

The President sat two long hours for his 
portrait the next morning, after which he 
called on President Sullivan at the famous 
Stavers Inn. Thence he proceeded to the 
hom>e of his secretary, Tobias Lear, to pay 
his respects to that gentleman's aged mother. 
The crowd about the door while this ex- 
traordinary event was going on is said to 
have been the greatest Portsmouth has ever 
known. And well it might be; you and I 
would have been eager also to catch some 
glimpse of the party in the southwest par- 

176 



Taverns That Entertained IVaskington 

lour of the old Lear house during that de- 
lightful hour when the President held the 
little relatives of his favourite private sec- 
retary upon his knee and talked to the ven- 
erable Mrs. Lear of her son's admirable 
service. Lear, to be sure, had not alv^ays 
been a man up to Washington's standard of 
punctuality. He apologized to his employer 
twice in a very few weeks for tardiness by 
explaining that his watch was wrong; but 
Washington had replied, " Mr. Lear, you 
must get a new watch, or I must get a new 
secretary," and the secretary saw the point. 

The evening following the call at the 
Lears' found the President at " the Assem- 
bly, where there were about seventy-five well 
dressed and many very handsome ladies, 
among whom (as was also the case at the 
Salem and Boston assemblies) were a greater 
proportion with much blacker hair than are 
usually seen in the southern States." Early 
the next morning the honoured guests quietly 
left town " having earnestly entreated that 
all parade and ceremony might be avoided 
on my return. Before ten I reached Exeter, 
fourteen miles distance. This is considered 
as the second town in New Hampshire and 
stands at the head of the tide waters of the 

177 



Among Old New England Inns 

Piscataqua river. ... It is a place of some 
consequence, but does not contain more than 
one thousand inhabitants. A jealousy sub- 
sists between this town (where the Legisla- 
ture alternately sits) and Portsmouth, which 
had I known it in time, would have made 
it necessary to have accepted an invitation 
to a public dinner; but my arrangements 
having been otherwise made I could not." 

Haverhill, therefore, was the next town 
whose hospitality the cavalcade accepted. 
The account of this visit which has come 
down to us from the graphic pen of George 
Wingate Chase, makes very interesting read- 
ing. The President journeyed in an open 
carriage, he tells us, drawn by four horses 
accompanied only by his secretary, Mr. 
Lear, Major Jackson and a single servant. 
Mr. Lear, upon a beautiful white horse, 
rode in advance of the carriage, which was 
occupied by Washington and Mr. Jackson, 
and driven by the President's private coach- 
man. The tavern used was variously called 
" Mason's Arms," from its sign of free- 
masonry, and Harrod's, after its proprietor; 
it stood on what became later the site of the 
Town Hall. The President had been ear- 
nestly invited to be the guest of Mr. John 

178 



Taverns That Entertained IVashington 

White, whose daughter had often been a 
visitor at his own home in Philadelphia, but 
in Haverhill, as so often before during this 
journey, he expressed his preference for a 
public house, observing with a smile that he 
was '' an old soldier and used to hard fare 
and a hard bed." 

On alighting at the tavern, he was intro- 
duced to a number of the town's prominent 
citizens and then, after a short rest, he took 
a walk to see the sights of the place, remark- 
ing repeatedly, as he made his way along 
the street now named after him, upon the 
pleasantness and beauty of the scenery, the 
thrift and enterprise of the citizens. " Haver- 
hill is the pleasantest village I have passed 
through," he delighted his entertainers by 
observing. 

With Washington's stay here is associated 
more of those charming stories about his 
fondness for children. Among his visitors 
with their fathers, were Mary White and 
Betsey Shaw, two bright little maidens of 
eight who were playmates and fast friends. 
While engaged in easy conversation with the 
gentlemen, the President called the little 
girls to him, and taking one upon each knee, 
soon completely dispelled their shyness by 

179 



Among Old Nezv England Inns 

his kind words and gentle manner. During 
the interview he drew from his pocket a 
glove and smilingly inquired, " Which of 
the little misses will mend my glove? " 
Both were naturally eager for the honour, 
so they were told to do it between them and 
given each a hearty kiss upon the lips when 
they returned the glove, neatly repaired, 
half an hour later. The news of this reward 
spread rapidly, and not long after the visit- 
ors' departure, there came a timid knock 
at the door, and two more little maidens 
entered, requesting permission to kiss the 
President's hand. Washington saw the 
point, and gladly expressed willingness to 
exchange kisses with the little beggars. His 
duties towards the children of Haverhill 
were not yet all performed, however, for 
scarcely had he retired to his room, — early, 
in accordance with his usual custom, — 
when he heard a great uproar downstairs 
and learned that it proceeded from a small 
boy who said he '' must see George Wash- 
ington." Doubtless, the little fellow had 
listened to so many stories from his mother's 
lips about the '^ great Washington " that he 
expected to find the President some super- 
human thing. At all events he only stared 

i8o 



Taverns That Entertained Washington 

dumbly when let into Washington's pres- 
ence. Very kindly he was asked what he 
wanted. 

'' I want to see George Washington," 
stammered the little fellow. 

The President smiled. '' I am George 
Washington," he said, patting the lad's head 
gently, '^ but, my little friend, I am only a 
man!' 

The landlord's little daughter, too, won 
a kiss that night for deftly applying the 
family warming-pan to the '^ best bed " in 
Washington's room. 

Yet better than any of these stories about 
children one likes, I think, the incident at- 
tending Washington's departure on the ferry- 
boat early the next morning. Among those 
who had tried hard to obtain an interview 
with the President was Bart Pecker, an old 
soldier who had been in the famous " Wash- 
ington Life Guards," but who, with decli- 
ning years, had become so addicted to drink 
that he was not regarded as a credit to the 
community. Although he pleaded hard for 
a chance to speak to Washington, whom he 
declared he was " well acquainted with " he 
was purposely kept in the background on 
account of his habits and shabby appear- 

i8i 



Among Old New England Inns 

ance. But just as Washington was stepping 
upon the ferry-boat Bart's patience gave way 
and with a fierce ejaculation that he would 
" speak to the General/' he pushed through 
the crowd and thrusting out his hand, cried 
excitedly, " General, how do you do? " 

Apparently Washington recognized the 
voice for, turning quickly, he grasped the 
outstretched hand and, quietly slipping a 
gold-piece into it, said, '' Bart, is this you? 
Good-bye, good-bye." 

From Haverhill the distinguished party 
journeyed to " Abbot's tavern in Andover, 
where we breakfasted, and met with much 
attention from Mr. Phillips, President of 
the Senate of Massachusetts, who accom- 
panied us through ... to Lexington where 
I dined, and viewed the spot on which the 
first blood was spilt in the dispute with 
Great Britain, on the 19th of April, 1775. 
Here I parted with Mr. Phillips and pro- 
ceeded on to Watertown. . . . We lodged 
in this place at the house of a Widow Cool- 
idge near the Bridge, and a very indifferent 
one it is." The Andover tavern was excel- 
lent, however, and there is a very pretty 
story of Washington's stay there. His rid- 
ing-glove had again become torn and he 

182 



Taverns That Entertained Washington 

asked his landlord's little daughter to mend 
it for him. This she did so neatly that, 
when she returned the glove, Washington 
took her upon his knee and gave her a kiss. 
Which so elated Miss Priscilla Abbott that 
she would not allow her face to be washed 
again for a week! This old tavern, long the 
residence of Samuel Locke, is still standing, 
and is in an excellent state of preservation 
though no longer used for the entertainment 
of the public. 

Needham, Sherburn, Holliston, Milford 
and Menden were the places next along the 
route, and by the end of this day (Novem- 
ber 6) the party has reached Taft's at Ux- 
bridge, having travelled thirty-six miles. 
Taft's inn made a very good impression 
upon the President; we find him writing, 
the day after his stay there, this character- 
istic letter to the proprietor: 

" Hartford 8 November, 1789 
" Sir — Being informed that you have 
given my name to one of your sons, and 
called another after Mrs. Washington's fam- 
ily, and being, moreover, very much pleased 
with the modest and innocent looks of your 
two daughters, Patty and Polly, I do for 

183 



Among Old New England Inns 

these reasons send each of these girls a piece 
of chintz; and to Patty, who bears the name 
of Mrs. Washington, and who waited more 
upon us than Polly did, I send five guineas, 
with which she may buy herself any little 
ornaments she may want, or she may dis- 
pose of them in any other manner more 
agreeable to herself. As I do not give these 
things with a view to have it talked of, or 
even to its being known, the less there is said 
about it the better you will please me; but 
that I may be sure the chintz and money 
have got safe to hand let Patty, who I dare 
say is equal to it, write me a line informing 
me thereof, directed to ' The President Of 
the United States at New York.' I wish 
you and your family well, and am your 
humble servant, GEORGE WASHINGTON " 

Jacob's Inn in Thompson, Connecticut, 
"not a good house;" Colonel Grosvenor's 
in Pomfret and Perkins Tavern in Ashford 
are next noted in the Diary which then says : 
" It being contrary to law and disagreeable 
to the People of this State to travel on the 
Sabbath day — and my horses, after passing 
through such intolerable roads, wanting 
rest I stayed at Perkins Tavern (which by 

184 



Taverns That Entertained Washington 

the bye is not a good one) all day — and a 
meeting-house being within a few rods of 
the door, I attended morning and evening 
service and heard very lame discourses from 
a Mr. Pond." 

Washington's temperate allusion to the 
Connecticut Blue laws does him great credit. 
For the tithing-man who reminded him of 
them was not an over-courteous person, and 
insisted with more stubbornness than rever- 
ence that the Head of the Nation pause in 
his journey home to observe the Sabbath rest. 
As for the Ashford Tavern, it was a good 
house later if not just then. And it still 
stands, though now deserted. Since 1804 it 
has been known as Clark's Hotel, and for 
more than ninety years one of this family 
owned it. Then, in 1897, it was sold to 
Henry F. Hall, a wealthy lawyer of Wal- 
lingford, who intended to make it into a 
commodious home for summer boarders, but 
was prevented by illness from carrying out 
his plan. Now the building is becoming a 
prey to the elements though it is on the 
much-travelled Hartford and New York 
turnpike and once, as we have seen, enter- 
tained Washington. 

*' The house of one Fuller at Worthing- 

i8S 



Among Old New England Inns 

ton, in the township of Berlin " provided 
the next breakfast after Hartford had been 
left behind, and " Smith's on the plains of 
Wallingford " was another stopping-place. 
New Haven was reached before sundown. 
" At this place," says the Diary, " I met Mr. 
Elbridge Gerry in the stage from New York, 
who gave me the first cert'n ac'ct of the 
health of Mrs. Washington. November ii. 
Set out about sunrise and took the upper 
road to Milford, it being shorter than the 
lower one through West Haven. Break- 
fasted at the former. Baited at Fairfield; 
and dined and lodged at Maj. Marvin's 9 
miles further. November 12 — A little be- 
fore sunrise we left Maj. Marvin's, and 
breakfasting at Stamford, 13 miles distant, 
reached the Widow Haviland's, 12 miles 
further; where, on acct. of some lame 
horses, we remained all night." 

The following day finds the President 
back " at my house in New York, where I 
found Mrs. Washington and the rest of the 
family all well — and it being Mrs. Wash- 
ington's night to receive visits, a pretty large 
company of ladies and gentlemen were pres- 
sent." The " tour through the Eastern 
States " had consumed almost exactly a 

186 



Taverns That Entertained IVashington 

month, and had made glad, — or sad, ac- 
cording to their deserts, the hearts of some 
twoscore landlords. 

Rhode Island, it will be noted, had had 
no share in this tour. The truth was that 
the citizens of that state were a good deal 
averse to the new government and did not 
ratify the Constitution until May 29, 1790. 
This done, however, their state was at once 
included in the new order of things, and the 
President determined to make a short tour 
there just as he had done to the other parts 
of New England. 

Accordingly we find the Pennsylvania 
Packet of August 28, 1790 printing: "The 
President arrived at Newport at eight o'clock 
on Tuesday morning (August 17) at which 
time he was welcomed to the state by a 
salute from the fort. From the landing 
place he was attended to his lodgings by the 
principal inhabitants of the town, who were 
severally presented to him. He then walked 
round the town, and surveyed the various 
beautiful prospects from the eminences above 
it. At four o'clock he was waited on by the 
most respectable citizens of the place, who 
conducted him to the Town Hall, where a 
very elegant dinner was provided, and sev- 

187 



Among Old New England Inns 

eral toasts drank. After dinner he took an- 
other walk accompanied by a large number 
of gentlemen. On Wednesday morning at 
nine o'clock the President and his company 
embarked for Providence." 

The ancient chariot in which Washington 
rode from place to place during his visit to 
Providence is still preserved and the Golden 
Ball Inn in which he had his headquarters 
also survives. This house was dedicated in 
1783, an elaborate advertisement in the Ga- 
zette of Dec. 13 informing the citizens of 
Providence that " the Golden Ball Inn, op- 
posite the State House, is ready for guests, 
and the proprietor, Henry Rice, is ready to 
please all who will honor him with their 
presence in the new inn." Mr. Rice's cus- 
tom came promptly. The commanding posi- 
tion of the house, on the hill, and its size 
and imposing appearance drew to its doors 
whatever rich and distinguished travellers 
might be passing through. Over the en- 
trance door hung a large beautiful golden 
ball, and within were broad curving stair- 
cases, and large and sunny rooms of varied 
shape. One item of equipment to which the 
proprietor pointed with pardonable pride 



188 



Taverns That Entertained Washington 

was the wooden buttons by which all the 
doors could be fastened securely. 

A famous early entertainment given in 
this house was the Lafayette Ball of 1784. 
The young Marquis had brought over with 
him from France several young gentlemen 
of aristocratic birth, and they and he were 
promptly made free of all the fine homes in 
Providence. Finally, as an event of partic- 
ular elegance, this party at the Golden Ball 
was arranged. When the evening arrived 
all the beauties of the town were on hand, 
elegant in rich flowered brocades over short, 
quilted petticoats of silk or satin, with 
square-cut bodices and powdered hair to set 
off, as did their high-heeled slippers with 
silver buckles, their exquisite women's 
charms. A miniature of one of the guests 
thus apparelled has come down to assure us 
that the Golden Ball was a famous resort in 
its day. The men at that party were scarcely 
less gorgeous, for they wore silken hose and 
knee breeches adorned with silver buckles, 
while rich brocaded coats, lace ruffles and 
powdered hair made them still further irre- 
sistible. The ball room that night was bril- 
liantly lighted with hundreds of wax tapers 
which shed their soft glow over the gay 

189 



Among Old New England Inns 

scene, and to the music of fifes, bugles and 
fiddles Providence belles and the young 
noblemen from o'er seas danced the flying 
hours away. 

It was therefore, to a house already fa- 
mous that Washington came that August of 
1790. The room which he occupied on the 
second story was later used by President 
Monroe and President John Quincy Adams 
during visits to Providence, and in 1824 
Lafayette again stopped here. The name 
of the house has been changed twice since 
its salad days, first to the Roger Williams 
House and later to the City Mansion House, 
generally known as the Mansion House. 
Until within a few years it remained a house 
of entertainment and it still stands, in an 
excellent state of preservation owned by a 
man who is very proud of its connection 
with Washington. 



190 



CHAPTER IX 

THE WAYSIDE INN 

Those of us who love the flavour of colo- 
nial days and delight in surviving monu- 
ments of that time cannot be too thankful 
for the preservation and continued use as 
an inn of the Red Horse Tavern in Sud- 
bury. Sudbury was a great tavern town 
originally, and Longfellow, when he spoke 
of Landlord Howe's establishment simply 
as '' a " wayside inn was giving it a perfectly 
correct description. For it was then only 
one of many. But, through the genius of the 
Poet of America this tavern has since be- 
come "" the '' Wayside Inn, the most widely 
known and deeply loved of all the old tav- 
erns in New England. 

Happily it is really old and undeniably 
quaint. Sudbury was one of the first towns 
settled by our Puritan forbears. Rev. Ed- 
mund Browne, who named the place after 
the SufJolkshire home of his childhood, be- 

igi 



Among Old New England Inns 

ing among the passengers who sailed on 
" the good shipp Confidence " April 24, 
1638 and settled here in " the wilderness." 
The place, however, had rich natural advan- 
tages, and these lusty young men from old 
England were soon prosperous as a result 
of their choice of a home. 

John How was among the first in the 
settlement to be admitted a freeman. In 
England he had been a glover, but, there 
being slight demand for gloves in new 
towns of the seventeenth century, he turned 
his attention in 1661 to the trade of tavern- 
keeper. Very early, therefore, we find a 
How keeping a tavern. Longfellow, in ac- 
counting to an English friend for the coat 
of arms and justice authority with which his 
Landlord Howe is endowed said (Dec. 28, 
1863) "Some two hundred years ago an 
English family by the name of Howe built 
in Sudbury a country house, which has re- 
mained in the family down to the present 
time, the last of the race dying two years 
ago. Losing their fortunes, they became 
innkeepers, and for a century the Red Horse 
has flourished, going down from father to 
son. . . . This will account for the land- 
lord's coat of arms and for his being a jus- 

192 



The IVayside Inn 

tice of the peace, things that must sound 
strange to English ears." 

As a matter of fact, however, there was 
nothing strange about an inn-keeper in colo- 
nial New England being both a gentleman 
and a squire. John How was a selectman 
as early as 1642 and in 1655 he was ap- 
pointed to see to the restraining of youth 
on the Lord's day. Nor was this at all in- 
compatible with his week-day uses. But 
Longfellow knew that an English reader 
would not understand this. James Fenimore 
Cooper, writing a quarter of a century ear- 
lier, knew it also for he says, " The inn- 
keeper of Old England and the inn-keeper 
of New England form the very extremes of 
their class. The one is obsequious to the 
rich, the other unmoved and often appar- 
ently cold. The first seems to calculate at 
a glance the amount of profit you are likely 
to leave behind you; while his opposite ap- 
pears only to calculate in what manner he 
can most contribute to your comfort with- 
out materially impairing his own. . . . He 
is often a magistrate, the chief of a battalion 
of militia, or even a member of a state leg- 
islature. He is almost always a man of 



193 



Among Old New England Inns 

character; for it is difficult for any other 
to obtain a license to exercise the calling." 

The first Landlord How was emphatically 
" a man of character." The proximity of 
his tavern in Marlborough to the Indian 
plantation brought him into intimate con- 
tact with the redskins, but he soon won their 
confidence and good will by his uniform 
kindness. Once he settled a dispute regard- 
ing a pumpkin-vine, which sprang up on 
the premises of one Indian while bearing 
its fruit upon that of another, in an impres- 
sively statesmanlike manner. Calling for a 
knife he divided the pumpkin squarely in 
halves, giving equal portions to each claim- 
ant! 

It was not John How, though, whose inn 
Longfellow celebrated. His place was in 
Marlborough as has been said and his sign 
that of the Black Horse, while " the Way- 
side Inn " was the enterprise of his grand- 
son and displayed a prancing steed of bril- 
liant red over its doorway. According to 
some authorities, David How opened his 
house in 1714; certain it is that it was in 
full swing two years later, for Sewall, that 
incomparable diarist records that he started 
with a friend for Springfield on the 27th of 

194 



The JVayside Inn 

April of that year, " treated at N. Spar- 
hawk's, and got to How's in Sudbury about 
one-half hour by the sun." 

The original house was a small one, gen- 
erally supposed, says Mr. Homer Rogers, 
who bought the estate after the death of the 
last How, to be the L in the rear of the 
present edifice. David How kept the tavern 
until his death in 1746, when it passed into 
the hands of his son, Ezekial, by whom it 
was enlarged as increased demand for rooms 
made necessary. The business done by the 
house at this time was considerable, for it 
was on the great highway by which the mail 
travelled westward from Boston and passen- 
gers were glad to pause for a night here 
while pursuing the wearisome journey to the 
further part of the state and beyond. The 
fiery steed on the front of the sign was to 
distinguish the house from the Black Horse 
Tavern in Marlborough while on the back 
were later added the initials of the first three 
owners : 

"D. R o 1686 

E. H. ,,..„„. . 1746 
A. Howe 1 796 '* 

While Ezekial Howe was the landlord 
19s 



Among Old New England Inns 

there was established the following price- 
list of charges at this Sudbury tavern: 

" Mug best India flip . . , .15 

New England do , ... 12 
Toddy in proportion 

A good dinner 20 

Best supper and breakfast . . 15 each 

Common do 12 

Lodging ....... 4" 

The nature of the entertainment for which 
these modest prices were asked may be 
gathered from this description written by 
President Dwight of Yale early in the 
nineteenth century: "The best old-fash- 
ioned New England inns were superior to 
any of the modern ones which I have seen. 
The variety was ample and the food was 
always of the best quality. The beds were 
excellent; the house and all its appendages 
were in the highest degree clean and neat; 
the cookery was remarkably good; and the 
stable was not less hospitable than the house. 
The family, in the meantime, were possessed 
of principle, and received you with the kind- 
ness and attention of friends. Your baggage 
was as safe as in your own house. If you 
were sick you were nursed and befriended 

196 



The IVayside Inn 

as in your own family. No tavern-haunters, 
gamblers or loungers were admitted any 
more than in a well-ordered private habita- 
tion; and as little noise was allowed. . . . 
In a word you found in these inns the pleas- 
ures of an excellent private house. To finish 
the story, your bills were always equitable, 
calculated on what you ought to pay, and 
not upon the scheme of getting the most 
which extortion might think proper to de- 
mand." 

Yet the tap-room was an important part 
of every tavern's equipment and that of the 
Inn in Sudbury was, and is, one of the most 
interesting apartments in the whole house. 
In one corner, over the bar, is the wooden 
portcullis raised or lowered according to the 
demand for liquid refreshment and we may 
still see here the ancient floor worn by the 
feet of hundreds of good fellows now gone 
to their long home; overhead are heavy oak 
timbers dating back to the days when flip 
reigned instead of cocktails. Upstairs you 
are shown the travellers' rooms which peo- 
ple of no particular importance occupied in 
common and the state chamber still deco- 
rated with its wall paper of bluebells 
wherein slept Lafayette on his journey to 

197 



Among Old New England Inns 

Boston in 1824. Above is the garret where 
slaves were accommodated and which was 
used as a store-house for grain at the time 
when an Indian invasion was feared. Orig- 
inally, too, the dance-hall was in one of 
these upper rooms. 

A day passed under this roof one hundred 
and fifty years ago would have spread before 
us all the colour and movement, all the pic- 
turesque charm and interest of a typical 
New England tavern. A great deal earlier 
than we would then have thought pleasant, 
we should have been awakened by the rum- 
bling of heavy market-wagons taking into 
Boston the produce of the rich Connecticut 
valley. There was no time on the down trip 
for the drivers to loiter by the way but in 
the afternoon, on the return, we should have 
found the canvas-topped wagons filling the 
road in front of the house while their owners 
refreshed themselves with excellent toddy 
in the tap-room and the horses partook of 
satisfying oats in the comfortable barns 
near by. 

Yet the real event of the day was, of 
course, the coming, about breakfast-time, of 
the mail coach from Boston. We would be 
on the porch awaiting it, for the music of 

198 



The IVayside Inn 

the horn would have heralded its approach 
and no one with blood in his veins would 
willingly miss the spectacle of its arrival, 
as the dexterous driver wheeled into the 
yard and brought his foaming bays to a 
standstill at the front door. Every one in 
the house arose to that occasion! Yet in a 
trice it is all over. The black stable boys 
have taken out the horses, the genial host 
has welcomed the travellers, — stiff and taci- 
turn as might be expected of men who have 
ridden since three o'clock on an empty stom- 
ach, — and interest is transferred to the din- 
ing-room tables spread with bountiful break- 
fast cheer. A half hour later came the 
speeding of the parting guest to give one 
another thrill, for a journey had consider- 
able hazard about it back in the eighteenth 
century. 

Of the soldiers who marched up to the 
Red Horse, stacked their muskets and re- 
tired to the tap-room for rest and comfort 
many tales might be told. In 1724, during 
Lovewell's war, the steel-capped and buff- 
coated men who patrolled the roads of the 
vicinity made the place their rendezvous, 
and during the French and Indian war 
troops hurrying to the frontier stretched out 

199 



Among Old New England Inns 

and snatched a rest under the old oaks in 
front of the house. When the Worcester 
minutemen, led by Timothy Bigelow, were 
hurrying down to Lexington, they, too, tar- 
ried for a brief space at this ancient land- 
mark. 

Ezekial How himself had a not unim- 
portant share of Lexington's glory. He was 
at this time lieutenant-colonel of the Fourth 
Regiment of Middlesex County Militia, of 
which James Barrett of Concord was colo- 
nel. In the May of the following year the 
legislature made him colonel, which com- 
mission he held until 1779 when he resigned. 
The number of Sudbury men in actual serv- 
ice at Concord and Lexington was three 
hundred and two. " The inhabitants of Sud- 
bury never can make such an important ap- 
pearance probably again," a Revolutionary 
soldier has written of the event. 

The first news of trouble came to the 
town between three and four in the morn- 
ing of that first Patriots' Day, carried to the 
Sudbury member of the Provincial Congress 
by an express from Concord. Immediately 
the church bell was rung, musketry dis- 
charged and the six companies of the town 
mustered into service. By nine o'clock all 

200 



The IVayside Inn 

the men had reached Concord, and Land- 
lord How had distinguished himself for 
particular gallantry in the affair at the old 
North Bridge. It does not, however, appear 
that he took further part in the active op- 
erations of the Revolution, though he con- 
tinued to command his militia company and 
rendered important service as a member of 
the various committees charged with the 
makeup of quotas and the preparation of 
muster rolls. It was, therefore, altogether 
fitting that Washington should honour Sud- 
bury and its inn with a brief visit during 
his triumphal progress through New Eng- 
land in 1789, stopping here for lunch and 
warmly shaking hands with the veteran land- 
lord who had been one of the heroes of Con- 
cord. 

Colonel How died in 1796 and again we 
turn to an inventory for intimate insight 
into life of a century ago. His appraised 
the famous coat-of-arms at $4, his firearms 
at $8, his library at $10, the clock at $30, a 
silver tankard at $25, the '^ other plate " at 
$30, and the homestead of 240 acres of land 
at $6,500 thus bringing the entire appraisal 
up to $9,531.48. By the will it is made clear 
that the inn then consisted of new and old 

201 



Among Old New England Inns 

parts, for the Colonel speaks of " a new 
kitchen at the west end of the dwelling- 
house, with the lower room adjoining 
thereto, also the long chamber over the 
aforesaid room, with the north-west bed 
chamber in the old part of said dwelling- 
house." The residue of the estate, after 
many minor legacies and several personal 
articles bequeathed to '' my well-beloved 
granddaughter, Hepsibah Brown," was left 
to the Colonel's third son, Adam How. 

Adam How was the antiquarian of the 
family and he spent a great deal of time 
tracing the family line back to the nobility 
of England. Apart from this, however, he 
did little to add to the lustre of the name. 
He kept the inn until 1830 when he was 
succeeded by his son, Lyman, whom Long- 
fellow thus describes: 

" Proud was he of his name and race, 
Of old Sir William and Sir Hugh 
And in the parlour, full in view, 
His coat-of-arms, well-framed and glazed. 
Upon the wall in colours blazed ; 
He beareth gules upon his shield, 
A chevron argent in the field, 
With three wolfs heads, and for the crest 
A Wyvern part-per-pale addressed 
202 



The Wayside Inn 

Upon a helmet barred ; below 

The scroll reads, * By the name of Howe/ " 

It is with this Landlord Howe that the 
" Tales " are bound up. So, before passing 
to them let us see, if we can, what manner 
of man the original of Longfellow's Boni- 
face really was. Rather imposing in ap- 
pearance we find him, dignified and grave 
appropriately, it would appear, a leader of 
the Congregational choir in his town, a 
member of the school committee and justice 
of the peace. Because he was all his life 
a bachelor he left no Howe to survive him 
in carrying on the inn ; but this was perhaps 
just as well because, during his time, the 
railroad came to supersede the stagecoach 
and ere his death, the stream of guests at 
the Red Horse had shrunk almost to a van- 
ishing point. In the year following this 
good man's departure, we find the following 
interesting entry in Longfellow's diary, 
" Drive with Fields to the old Red Horse 
Tavern in Sudbury — alas! no longer an 
inn! A lovely valley, the winding road 
shaded by grand old oaks before the house. 
A rambling, tumble-down old building, two 
hundred years old; and till now in the fam- 

203 



Among Old New England Inns 

ily of the Howes, who have kept an inn for 
one hundred and seventy-five years. In the 
old time, it was a house of call for all trav- 
ellers from Boston westward." Ten days 
later the poet writes Fields : " The Sudbury 
Tales go on famously. I have now five 
complete, with a great part of the * Pre- 
lude.' " 

The first series of the poems was pub- 
lished on Nov. 25, 1863 under the title 
" Tales of a Wayside Inn," which Charles 
Sumner suggested in place of the " Sudbury 
Tales " of the initial advertisement. All the 
characters described in the series are real 
but they were never at any inn together. 
The musician was Ole Bull; the poet, T. W. 
Parsons, the translator of Dante; the Sicil- 
ian, Luigi Monti; the theologian. Profes- 
sor Treadwell of Harvard; the student 
Henry Ware Wales. Parson, Monti and 
Treadwell were in the habit of spending the 
summer months at the Sudbury Inn and 
Longfellow also had known the place in its 
palmy days, as is shown by the following 
entry made by him in the year 1840: "The 
stage left Boston about three o'clock in the 
morning, reaching the Sudbury Tavern for 
breakfast, a considerable portion of the route 

204 



The Wayside Inn 

being travelled in total darkness, and with- 
out your having the least idea who your 
companion might be." Thus he was able 
to reproduce vividly the fragrant atmos- 
phere of the place in that time 

" When men lived in a grander way 
With ampler hospitality." 

Longfellow's description of the inn fits just 
as well now as it did fifty years ago: 

" Across the meadows bare and brown, 
The windows of the wayside inn 
Gleam red with firelight through the leaves 
Of wood-bine hanging from the eaves 
Their crimson curtains rent and thin. 

" As ancient in this hostelry 
As any in the land may be, . . . 
A kind of old HobgobHn Hall, . . . 
With weather stains upon the wall 
And stairways worn, and crazy doors, 
And creaking and uneven floors. 
And chimneys huge and tiled and tall. 
A region of repose it seems, 
A place of slumber and of dreams, 
Remote among the wooded hills ! 
For there no noisy railway speeds, 
Its torch-race scattering smoke and gleeds; 
205 



Among Old New England Inns 

But noon and night, the panting teams 
Stop under the great oaks that throw 
Tangles of Hght and shade below, 
On roofs and doors and window sills. 
Across the road the barns display 
Their lines of stalls, their mows of hay, 
Through the wide doors the breezes blow. 
The wattled cocks strut to and fro, 
And, half effaced by rain and shine. 
The Red Horse prances on the sign." 

Gone, however, are many priceless fur- 
nishings of the house, among them that little 
desk in the tap room whereon the score of 
the drinkers was wont to be set down. Gone, 
too, from the window sash is that rhyme 
inscribed June 24, 1774 by '^ William Moli- 
neaux Jr., Esq.," 

" What do you think, 
Here is good drink. 
Perhaps you may not know it, 
If not in haste do stop and taste. 
You merry folks will show it." 

Yet there is no one of us, I take it, who 
would not prefer Longfellow's poem about 
this inn to the mere goods and chattels it 
once possessed. And better than any young 

206 



The IVayside Inn 

blade's offhand verse is the great poet's allu- 
sion in his Prelude to 

" The jovial rhymes . . . 
Writ near a century ago, 
By the great Major Molineaux, 
Whom Hawthorne has immortal made." 

For, has not he " immortal made " this most 
fascinating of all old taverns? 



207 



CHAPTER X 

ENTERTAINMENT FOR MAN AND BEAST 

Those of us who have been brought up 
with the idea that our Puritan ancestors liked 
to be uncomfortable have only to read Sam- 
uel SewaU's Diary to be fully persuaded of 
the contrary. Sewall, to be sure, was of 
redder blood than many men of his time; 
and yet his delight in " roast fowl at Comp- 
ton's" (an Ipswich inn very noted in its 
day) and in the almonds tendered him by 
the ladies of his roving fancy did not pre- 
vent him from standing up in the Old South 
Church to confess his sin in having accepted 
" spectral evidence " at the trial of the 
witches, nor from keeping one day annually 
for fast and prayer in remembrance of that 
event. No, Puritans both believed deeply 
and enjoyed deeply. Study of tavern bills 
makes it quite clear that they keenly appre- 
ciated such comfort as could be had in those 
days. 

208 



m. 






1 




'•^4 


J '«;>■■'•. .".7 


^— ? 




^^^ 


if 


1 



WINN HOUSE, WOBURN 




PAXTON INN, PAXTON 



Entertainment for Man and Beast 

So, by no illogical sequence, it was con- 
sidered an honour to a Puritan to keep a 
good tavern. John Adams, travelling 
through Connecticut in 1771, found that 
Landlord Pease " was the great man of the 
town; their representative &C as well as 
tavern-keeper, and just returned from the 
General Assembly at Hartford." Lieut. 
Winn was proud to keep a Woburn tavern 
with his family arms displayed as a sign- 
board. General Paxton was glad to have his 
portrait painted on the sign of the inn named 
after him, and Dr. Nathaniel Ames of Ded- 
ham, Massachusetts, was a person of such 
position that it is hard to tell whether one 
should characterize him as a druggist, an 
almanack-maker or an inn-keeper. The 
almanac was a capital advertisement for his 
house, at any rate, — as witness the follow- 
ing in the issue for 1751: 

" ADVERTISEMENT 

" These are to signify to all persons that 
travel the great Post-Road South West from 
Boston that I keep a House of Publick En- 
tertainment Eleven Miles from Boston, at 
the Sign of the Sun. If they want refresh- 

209 



Among Old New England Inns 

ments and see cause to be my guests, they 
shall be well entertained at a reasonable 
Rate. N. Ames." 

Upon this advertisement hangs a tale well 
worth telling. The old hostelry in Dedham 
had been kept as early as 1658 by Lieu- 
tenant Joshua Fisher, surveyor, apothecary, 
innholder and officer of " ye trayne band." 
His son and successor was Captain Fisher, 
who was also called Joshua. About 1735 
one of the latter's daughters married Dr. 
Nathaniel Ames, our friend of the adver- 
tisement, who, since 1726, had been success- 
fully publishing the almanacs which bear 
his name. Ames' wife and infant son died 
soon after his marriage, and he thereupon 
entered into a lawsuit with the families of 
his sisters-in-law for what would have been 
their share in the land and inn. 

The turning-point of the suit hung upon 
the term " next of kin." Ancient common 
law and English law militated against the 
ascension of property, that is the inheritance 
by a father or mother from a child; in ab- 
sence of husband, wife or lineal descendant, 
property passed on to the " next of kin," 
which might be a distant cousin. The Prov- 

210 



Entertainment for Man and Beast 

ince Laws, however, substituted, by general 
interpretation, the so-called civilian method 
of counting kinship, by which the father 
could inherit. So Dr. Ames thought that 
he had a case; and though he was twice 
defeated in the courts he stood out pluckily 
for what he believed to be his rights with the 
result that, in 1748, after himself preparing 
unaided both case and argument, he tri- 
umphed before the '^ Superior Court of Ju- 
dicature, etc., of the Province of Massachu- 
setts Bay! " Thus it was that what had been 
Fisher's Tavern came to bear the name of 
Ames. 

To win his case was not enough for this 
excitable person, however. He had suffered 
a good deal in mind and purse by the law's 
delay and his keen wits, darting about for 
an effective way of making Chief Justice 
Dudley and his associate Lynde smart for 
their failure to unite with Judges Saltonstall, 
Sewall and Cushing he hit upon the idea 
of caricaturing the Court. Accordingly he 
had painted and hung in front of his inn a 
sign which cost him forty pounds, — and 
some subsequent trouble. For the sign rep- 
resented the whole court sitting in state and 
big wigs before an open book entitled 

211 



Among Old New England Inns 

PROVINCE LAWS. The dissenting 
judges are shown with their backs to the 
book. Of course the learned gentlemen 
heard of the sign, and, of course, they sent 
a sheriff to bring it before them. But Dr. 
Ames, who happened to be in Boston at the 
time, also heard of the sheriff's errand and 
rode out to Dedham in all haste. When the 
officer of the law arrived he found on the 
pole where the lampoon had hung only this 
legend: "A wicked and adulterous gen- 
eration seeketh after a sign, but there shall 
no sign be given it." 

With this episode as a starter, and the 
almanac in which to follow up the advan- 
tage, the tavern became more famous than 
ever. The almanac-maker lived here for 
fifteen years and here were born, by his sec- 
ond wife. Dr. Nathaniel Ames and Hon. 
Fisher Ames, both men of distinction in 
their time. Richard Woodward did the 
honours of this house in September, 1774, 
for the famous Suffolk Convention where 
was chosen the committee that drafted the 
first resolutions in favour of fighting things 
out with Great Britain. And during the 
Revolution, as during the French and In- 
dian War, this tavern was the centre of 

212 



Entertainment for Man and Beast 

whatever went on for the cause of freedom. 
All the well-known patriots, including 
Washington, Lafayette, Hancock and Adams 
are said to have often eaten and drunk 
within its walls. It has now been dust for 
almost a century, though, and its sign-board, 
too, perished long ago. But in that enter- 
taining book, ^' The Almanacks of Nathan- 
iel Ames 1726-1775," the author, Sam 
Briggs, gives an illustration of the painting 
from a drawing found among Dr. Ames' 
papers after his death. 

Before leaving the subject it is interest- 
ing to read Ames' own allusion, in the Al- 
manack of 1752 to the disappearance of the 
Sign: 

" The Affairs of my House are of a Pub- 
lick Nature, and therefore I hope may be 
mentioned here without offence to my 
Reader: The Sign I advertised last Year 
by Reason of some little Disappointments is 
not put up, but the Thing intended to be 
signified by it is to be had according to said 
Advertisement. And I beg Leave further to 
add, that if any with a View of Gain to 
themselves or Advantage to their Friends, 
have reported Things of my House in con- 
tradiction to the aforesaid Advertisement, 

213 



Among Old New England Inns 

I would only have those whom they would 
influence consider, that where the Narrator 
is not honest, is not an Eye or Ear Witness, 
can't trace his story to the original, has it 
only by Hear-say, a thousand such witnesses 
are not sufficient to hang a dog: & I hope 
no Gentleman that travels the Road will 
have his Mind biased against my House by 
such idle Reports." 

This bold challenge seems to have had 
its due effect, for, in a letter dated Monday 
morning, June ii, 1753, which Mr. Field 
quotes, custom that was to have gone else- 
where is given to Ames's Tavern. 

" Before I heard from you this morning," 
says the letter-writer in question, " the Gen- 
tlemen had concluded to dine at Gay's but 
I took the pains to see 'em again & we have 
agreed to have the Dinner at your house. 
I hope you will have evrything in that agree- 
able & genteel order that will Recommend 
your house to the Gentlemen & my prefer- 
ence of it before Gays acceptable to them 
& the Ladys. 

^^ I am your hble Servant 
"EzEKiAL Price 
We propose Bacon 
Lamb 

214 



Entertainment for Man and Beast 

Chicken 

Green Peas &ctr Asparagrass 
Sauces &ctr for the Dinner 
^^ There will be about twelve chaises in- 
cluding those we meet so that you will pro- 
vide for 24 persons. We are to meet some 
Company from Newport who will set out 
tomorrow & the next day being Wednesday 
we shall set out & be at your house abt 10 
o'clock unless the Weather is so bad we 
can't proceed." 

There is no evidence of any public-house 
in Lancaster, Massachusetts, — afterwards a 
famous tavern town, — until 1690 when Na- 
thaniel Wilder received official permission 
to " Retale wine, Beere, Ale, Cyder, Rum, 
&c." His home was a garrisoned house on 
the southeast slope of George Hill, and he 
remained the sole innholder until his death 
in 1704, after which the business was carried 
on for a time by his widow. During the 
next twenty-five years, however, the list of 
those " privileged to sell " was a long one, 
among the most prominent people on it be- 
ing Justice John Houghton, who lived oppo- 
site the State Industrial School grounds. In 
the Middlesex Court Files is preserved the 
following letter from Houghton which is of 

215 



Among Old New England Inns 

interest for its picture of tavern-days in Lan- 
caster away back in 1715: 

"To Capt. Samuel Phipps of Charls- 
towne. 

"Worthy Sr. After my Humble Serv- 
ice & Due Respects Presented to ye Hon- 
'r'able Justices of ye County of Middlesex, 
together with yourselfe, these are to acquaint 
you that I am under such Indisposition of 
Body that I could not attend this Last Ses- 
sion of ye General Assembly, nor can I as 
yet Possibly (with comfort) come to pay 
my excise nor to Renew my Licence, but I 
have sent ye money for ye last years excise 
by Joseph Bradbrook, the Bearer hereof, 
which I hope will be to acceptance & in case 
yo'^ Hon'^s shall see cause that my Licence 
may be continued I hope you will abate neer 
one halfe of ye excise for Doubtless I have 
paid very Deare considering what I have 
Drawne Compared with other Townes. I 
had but one Hogshead of Rum ye last year 
& that wanted about 12 Gallons of being 
full when I bought it: & it wants severall 
Gallons of being out now besides about 10 
or 12 Gallons Lent out & were it not that 
I am concerned with writing of Deeds & 

216 



Entertainment for Man and Beast 

Bonds & other Publique Concerns of ye 
Town affaires, which Occasion Persons often 
to come to my House, in order to Signing 
& Issuing such things, I should not be will- 
ing to be concerned with a Licence; for 
what drinks I sell I do it as cheap as at 
Boston & besides ye first cost I pay twenty 
shillings pr Hogshead for carrying it up, 
besides the Hazard; & as for Cyder there 
is none to be had, nor like to be this year 
at any price, fruit is so scarce, & for wine I 
never sold 5 Gallons in all ye yeares I have 
had a license. So that my Draught being 
so Little (there being no Road or thorough- 
fare for travilers through our towne) I hope 
your Hon^s will consider ye Premisses & do 
therein as in your Wisdom & Justice it shall 
seem meet, which will oblidge 

" Your Humble Servant 
"JOHN HOUGHTON 
" Dat. Lan'* July y^ 27th : 171 5." 

This letter must not be taken to mean that 
Lancaster folk did not drink, however. The 
trouble is that they manufactured and con- 
sumed large quantities of fermented bev- 
erages, — at home. The orchards of the 
town were very famous, and cider became a 

217 



Among Old New England Inns 

product of such commercial importance that, 
when a highway was being constructed, it 
was expressly stipulated that the road should 
be of such width as to make it ^' feasible . . . 
to carry comfortably, four oxen with four 
barrels of cider at once." In an old mem- 
orandum book of Judge Joseph Wilder is 
" an acompt of Cyder made in the y'" 1728 " 
for his neighbours. There were 616 barrels 
in all of which 61 went to '' the Reverend 
Mr. John Prentice! " 

The people of Hadley, conscious of the 
evil effects of liquor houses, were in no haste 
to have an ordinary, and when the subject 
was agitated in January, 1663, they pro- 
ceeded with great caution, choosing a com- 
mittee of ten to consider the matter, and to 
report to another of seven; the latter were 
to report to the town and the town was then 
to choose the man most fit to keep an ordi- 
nary. Yet after all this no man was chosen, 
and until 1668, when we find that Richard 
Goodman had his license '^ continued " there 
is no further mention of the matter. After 
1668 there is no notice, for almost a quarter 
of a century, of an inn or ordinary in either 
Hadley or Hatfield, but during this period 
Joseph Kellogg, the ferry-man, had liberty 

218 



Entertainment for Man and Beast 

to entertain such travellers as passed that 
way. Moreover, in September, 1684, Dea- 
con Philip Smith was licensed to sell wine 
to persons *' in real need," — meaning the 
sick, — and in March, 1678, Samuel Par- 
trigg had liberty to sell liquors " to the neigh- 
bors," and in 1681 "for the helpfulness of 
neighbors;" four years later this privilege 
was extended to the retailing of wine. 

A famous Hadley liquor-case of this 
period was that of Doctor John Westcarr 
complained of hy the Indians for having 
sold to them contrary to a law made by the 
General Court in May 1657 forbidding such 
traffic — to an Indian, — under the penalty 
of 40 shillings for every pint. Doctor West- 
carr, when examined by Captain John 
Pynchon, confessed that he had had two 
barrels of liquor in the spring and, upon 
being asked what he did with it, said that 
he had used most of it in preparing medi- 
cines. The testimony of half a dozen In- 
dians proved so convincing to the court, 
however, that Dr. Westcarr was heavily 
fined. 

Of the custom of sharing rooms in prim- 
itive taverns early travellers give conflicting 
accounts. Madam Knight's testimony we 

2ig 



Among Old New England Inns 

have already read, and an English officer 
put himself on record to the effect that " the 
general custom of having two or three beds 
in a room to be sure is very disagreeable; 
it arises from the great increase of travel- 
ling within the last few years, and the small- 
ness of their houses, which were not built 
for houses of entertainment." Captain Basil 
Hall, on the other hand, declared that even 
at remote taverns his family had exclusive 
apartments; while in crowded inns it was 
never so much as suggested to him that other 
travellers should share his quarters. 

The cost of these quarters was for the 
most part very reasonable. When John 
Tripp and his wife put up at the Bowen 
Inn, Barrington, Rhode Island, they were 
presented with the following bill: 





s,d. 


To i Dinner 


9 


To Bread and Cheese 


7 


To breakfast and dinner 


I 3 


To I Bowl Toddy 


9 


To lodging you and wife 


6 


To \\ Bowl Toddy 


I iJ 


To i Mug Cyder 


ij 


To lodge self and wife 


6 


To I Gill Brandy 


5i 


220 





Entertainment for Man and Beast 



To breakfast 


9i 


Mug Cycler 


li 


To \ Bowl Toddy 


4i 


Dinner 


8 


To 15 Lb. Tobacco at 6d 


7 6 


To \ Bowl Toddy 


^\ 


To \ Mug Cyder 


li 


To Supper 


6 



Typical fare and typical treatment at one 
of this better class of taverns is thus de- 
scribed by Adam Hodgson: ^' Every ten or 
fifteen miles you come either to a little vil- 
lage composed of a few frame houses, with 
an extensive substantial house, whose respect- 
able appearance, rather than any sign, dem- 
onstrates it to be a tavern, (as the inns are 
called,) or to a single house appropriated 
to that purpose and standing alone in the 
woods. At these taverns you are accosted, 
often with an easy civility, ... by a land- 
lord who appears perfectly indifferent 
whether or not you take anything for the 
good of the house. If, however, you inti- 
mate an intention to take some refreshment, 
a most plentiful repast is, in due time, set 
before you, consisting of beef-steaks, fowls, 
turkies, ham, partridges, eggs, and, if near 
the coast, fish and oysters, with a great va- 

221 



Among Old New England Inns 

riety of hot bread, both of wheat flour and 
Indian-corn, the latter of which is prepared 
in many ways and is very good. The land- 
lord usually comes in to converse with you 
and to make one of the party; and as one 
cannot have a private room, I do not find 
his company disagreeable. He is, in gen- 
eral, well informed and well behaved, and 
the independence of manner which has often 
been remarked upon, I rather like than oth- 
erwise, when it is not assumed or obtrusive, 
but appears to rise naturally from easy cir- 
cumstances, and a consciousness that, both 
with respect to situation and intelligence, 
he is at least on a level with the generality 
of his visitors. At first I was a little sur- 
prised, on enquiring where the stage stopped 
to breakfast, to be told, at Mayor Todds; 
— to dine? At Col. Brown's — but I am 
now becoming familiar with these phenom- 
ena of civil and political equality. . . ." 

At the Ellery Tavern, Gloucester, as in 
many another old New England hostelry, 
the intercourse between the landlord and the 
lawmakers was so familiar that mine host 
had every reason to think himself quite as 
good as anybody. The selectmen of the 
town regularly held their meetings at this 

222 



Entertainment for Man and Beast 

inn and in 1744 ^^ annual salary of the five 
men chosen for the office was five dollars 
apiece the rest being taken out in tavern 
charges, which amounted to thirty pounds 
old tenor. The following year the citizens 
evidently thought they would economize, and 
they accordingly voted the selectmen a sal- 
ary of five pounds old tenor apiece and ^' to 
find themselves." This particular house of- 
fers a beautiful example of the overhanging 
second story and the lean-to, or sloping- 
roofed ell. It was built in 1707 by Parson 
White, but James Stevens afterwards made 
a tavern of it and there held sway until 
1740 when it came into the hands of Land- 
lord EUery. 

In the town of Cambridge, Massachusetts, 
also, the selectmen met at a tavern, the one 
chosen frequently being the Blue Anchor 
which had been established as an ordinary 
as early as 1652. Their bill there for 1769 
amounts to nearly five pounds. 

By what seems to-day an interesting para- 
dox " Ordination Day " was perhaps the 
most profitable tavern-gathering in the year. 
Then the visiting ministers were entertained 
by an especially good brew called '^ ordina- 
tion beer " and sometimes there was even 

223 



Among Old New England Inns 

an " ordination ball " in the evening, for 
which the sanction of the cloth had been 
obtained. The bill at one Hartford ordina- 
tion Mrs. Earle gives as follows: 





/. s, d. 


To keeping Ministers 


2 4 


2 Mugs Tody 


5 10 


5 Segars 


3 


I Pint Wine 


9 


3 Lodgings 


9 


3 Bitters 


9 


3 Breakfasts 


3 6 


15 Boles Punch 


I 


24 dinners 


I 16 


1 1 bottles wine 


3 16 


5 Mugs flip 


5 10 


5 Boles Punch 


6 


3 Boles Tody 


3 6 



With unconscious humour this bill is en- 
dorsed " all paid for except the Minister's 
Rum." 

Very often a tavern would be famed far 
and wide for its particular variety of drink. 
Brigham's Tavern at Westborough used to 
prepare mulled wine in this perfectly irre- 
sistible fashion: a quart of boiling hot Ma- 
deira, half a pint of boiling water, and six 

224 




ELLERY TAVERN, GLOUCESTER 




ERIGHAM'S TAVERN (NOW THE WESIBOROUGH HOTEL), 
WESTBOROUGH 



Entertainment for Man and Beast 

eggs beaten to a froth, all sweetened and 
spiced. Nutmeg was a favourite flavouring 
and fashionable ladies and elegant gallants 
always carried the delicate dainty in their 
pockets. Some New England taverns were 
famous for their spruce, birch and sassafras 
beer, boiled with quantities of roots and 
herbs, with birch, spruce or sassafras bark, 
with pumpkin and apple parings, with sweet- 
ening of molasses or maple syrup. One song 
writer of colonial times declared joyously, 

" Oh, we can make llqour to sweeten our lips 
Of pumpkins, of parsnips, of walnut-tree chips." 

Everybody appears to have drunk and fre- 
quently the most unexpected persons, 
dropped, liked Silas Wegg, into poetry on 
the joys of drinking. For instance in 1757 
S. M. of Boston whom there is reason to 
think was Samuel Mather, the son of Cot- 
ton Mather, sent to Sir Harry Frankland, 
the hero of Agnes Surriage^s romance, a 
box of lemons with these lines : — 

'^* You know from Eastern India came 
The skill of making punch as did the name. 
And as the name consists of letters five, 
By five ingredients is it kept alive., 
225 



Among Old New England Inns 

To purest water sugar must be joined, 
With these the grateful acid is combined. 
Some any sours they get contented use, 
But men of taste do that from Tagus choose 
When now these three are mixed with care 
Then added be of spirit a small share. 
And that you may the drink quite perfect see 
Atop the musky nut must grated be/' 

Of making many flips there was no end. 
Each landlord had his own opinion as to 
the proper way of mixing this indispensable 
article and every tavern bill one finds is 
punctuated with entries charging it up to 
the thirsty traveller. John Adams said that 
if you spent the evening in a tavern you 
found it full of people drinking drams of 
flip. Certainly the old tap-rooms were 
cheerful and inviting gathering-places with 
the landlord cheerily presiding over his 
cage-like counter, surrounded by cans and 
bottles and glasses, jars of whole spice and 
loaves of sugar with rows of suggestive look- 
ing barrels in the background 

" Where dozed a fire of beechen logs that bred 
Strange fancies in its embers golden-red, 
And nursed the loggerhead, whose hissing dip 
Timed by wise instinct, creamed the bowl of flip." 
226 



Entertainment for Man and Beast 

The loggerhead, more commonly called the 
flip iron, was a regular part of the chimney 
furniture in " ye olden time : " it was con- 
stantly kept warm in the ashes all ready to 
impart at short notice the puckering bitter- 
ness and curious scorched taste beloved of 
our ancestors. Sometimes, at Hallow E'en, 
parties of twentieth century young people 
get out the paraphernalia of Colonial tip- 
pling and try how it all seems; but I have 
yet to meet a modern who enjoyed the re- 
sults. We of to-day are too far from the 
digestions of our ancestors to delight in their 
drinks. 



227 



CHAPTER XI 

TAVERN SIGNS — AND WONDERS 

The custom of naming the tavern and 
placing before its door a signboard with a 
more or less appropriate device was brought 
to New England from Holland and the 
mother country. There was, indeed, a time 
when our laws required such a sign; and 
in France Louis XIV expressly prescribed 
that " Tavern keepers must put up Syn- 
boards and a bush: Nobody shall be al- 
lowed to open a tavern in the said city and 
its suburbs without having a sign and a 
bush." The " bush " here referred to was 
just what the name would imply, set on a 
pole or nailed to the tavern door. Hence 
the proverb *' Good Wine needs no bush." 

The variety and incongruity of tavern 
signs eventually became a matter of note and 
prompted the following curious rhyme in 
the British Apollo in 1710: 

228 




SIGN OF THE HANCOCK TAVERN, BOSTON 



Tavern Signs — and Wonders 

** Vm amazed at the signs, 
As I pass through the town, 
To see the odd mixture, 
A Magpie and Crown, 
The Whale and the Crow, 
The Razor and Hen, 
The Leg and Seven Stars, 
The Axe and The Bottle 
The Tun and The Lute, 
The Eagle and Child, 
The Shovel and Boot." 

Often, however, these titles were mere 
corruptions, as in the case of the " Three 
Broiled Chickens," the popular name for 
an old tavern still standing in Woburn, 
Massachusetts, and kept in Revolutionary 
days by Lieutenant Joseph Winn who had 
hung outside his house, with pardonable 
pride, his coat of arms showing three spread 
eagles on a shield. When the sign was a 
portrait of some person in public life it gen- 
erally reflected the political tendencies of 
the landlord. John Duggan hung out from 
his house in Corn Court a Hancock present- 
ment remotely after Copley because he ad- 
mired the patriot and wished to show it. 

The " Leg and Seven Stars " of the rhyme 
just quoted was however merely a deviation 

229 



Among Old New England Inns 

from the " League and Seven Stars " or 
Seven United Provinces. " The Axe and 
the Bottle " w^as the Battle Axe differently 
arranged; the "Goat And The Compass" 
once read ''God Encompasseth us;" the 
'' Bag of Nails," a tavern at Chelsea, Eng- 
land, is a corruption of the word " Baccha- 
nals," — singularly appropriate, surely for a 
tavern. 

In a curious English volume published 
in 1825 some extraordinary examples of tav- 
ern misnomers are given. There is " The 
Magdalen " for instance, so named because 
of its proximity to a female asylum which 
bore this title. '' Nothing but being in the 
neighborhood of such an institution could 
have rendered such a sign in any way ap- 
propriate for a public house," comments 
our author '' for we have never perceived 
anything in the manner of conducting such 
concerns as was conducive to virtue, but 
rather destructive to the morals of youth, 
and particularly of females." In justice to 
New England taverns it should, however, be 
said, that this stricture does not apply to 
them save in exceptional cases. Apart from 
other reasons, a landlord was too afraid of 
losing his sign. For, following the custom 

230 



Tavern Signs — and Wonders 

in England, Massachusetts, by an act of the 
General Court in 1710, gave to the sheriff 
or deputy power, when a taverner had com- 
mitted any irregularity, " to cause his sign 
to be taken down." 

The Punch Bowl was a favourite tavern- 
sign. Brookline, Massachusetts, had a very 
famous house bearing this name and in the 
Boston Evening Post of January 11, 1773 
one may find a notice that " a Bear and a 
Number of Turkeys will be set up as a 
mark at the Punch Bowl Tavern in Brook- 
line." This introduces us to turkey shoots, 
a favourite diversion early in the nineteenth 
century. Captain Basil Hall saw such a 
" shoot " advertised at a tavern in Tewks- 
bury and asked the landlord about it, where- 
upon that functionary " laughed at my curi- 
osity but good-humouredly enlightened my 
ignorance by explaining that these shooting 
matches were so common in America, that 
he had no doubt I would fall in with them 
often. I regretted very much having passed 
one day too late for this transatlantic battle. 
It appears that these birds were literal barn 
door fowls, placed at certain distances, and 
fired at by anyone who chooses to pay the 
allotted sum for a shot. If he kills the bird 

231 



Among Old New England Inns 

he is allowed to carry it off; otherwise, like 
a true sportsman, he has the amusement for 
his money. Cocks and hens, being small 
birds, are placed at the distance of one hun- 
dred and sixty-five feet; and for every shot 
with ball the sportsman has to pay four 
cents. Turkeys are placed at twice the dis- 
tance, or one hundred and ten yards, if a 
common musket be used; but at one hundred 
and sixty-five yards if the weapon be a rifle. 
In both these cases the price per shot is 
from six to ten cents." 

Horses of several colours, white, black 
and red, were often used for tavern signs 
here and in England. Addison frequented 
the White Horse Tavern, Kensington, and 
there many of his Spectator papers were 
written, including, very likely, that of April 
2, 1710, in which he thus advocates a cen- 
sorship of signboards: — "Our streets are 
filled with blue boars, black swans and red 
lions; not to mention flying pigs and hogs 
in armour, with many other creatures more 
extraordinary than any in the deserts of 
Africa. My first task, therefore, would be 
like that of Hercules, to clear the city from 
monsters. In the second place I would for- 
bid that creatures of jarring and incongru- 

232 



Tavern Signs — and Wonders 

ous names should be joined together in the 
same sign; such as the bell and the neat's 
tongue; the dog and the gridiron. The fox 
and goose may be supposed to have met, 
but what have the fox and seven stars to do 
together? And when did the lamb and dol- 
phin ever meet except upon a signpost? " 
One Massachusetts Inn which still displays 
the sign of a red lion is that at Stockbridge. 
No New Englander, however, seems to 
have had the hardihood to borrow the Boar's 
Head sign and name which Shakespeare has 
immortalized by association with the frolics 
of Falstaff and Prince Hal. But the Golden 
Ball, originally set up in honour of royalty, 
graced the Tory tavern of Colonel Jones 
at Weston, Massachusetts, as well as many 
other houses strictly republican in their sym- 
pathies. As for the Bell, that was to be seen 
in every kind of combination, and in England 
as well as here was so common as a sign that 
the following rhyme was made upon it: 

" Around the face of blue-eyM Sue, 
Did auburn ringlets curl, 
Her lips seem'd coral dipp'd in dew 

Her teeth two rows of pearl. 
Joe, of the Bell, whose wine, they said. 
Was new in cask, as he in trade, 

233 



Among Old New England Inns 

Espous'd this nonpareil; 

* You keep the bar,' said Joe, ' my dear, 
But be obhging, Sue, d ye hear, 

And prove to all who love good cheer 
They're welcome to the Bell.' 

** A London rider chanc'd to slip 

Behind the bar, to dine, 
And found sweet Susan *s yielding lip 

Much mellower than her wine. 
As Joe stepped in, he stamped and tore, 
And for the London beau he swore 

He'd dust his jacket well. 

* Heyday!* says Sue, * What's this, I trow! 
You bade me be obliging Joe; 

I'm only proving to the beau. 
He's welcome to the Bell. ' " 

Probably the most famous Bell Tavern in 
New England was that at Danvers, Massa- 
chusetts, which is now no longer standing, 
but which will always be remembered for 
its connection with Elizabeth Whitman, 
generally believed to have been the model 
for Hawthorne's " Hester Prynne." This 
was a typical inn of the pre-Revolutionary 
period. Here prices and everyday gossip 
were discussed; here, on Sundays, the more 
remote villagers left their horses while at- 
tending church, and here, after the two 

234 



Tavern Signs ~ and IVofiders 

hours* service, they returned to enjoy their 
dinner in the warmth of a snug corner. 
This tavern saw mourning for the death of 
Queen Anne and rejoicing over the acces- 
sion of the first George. The odious Stamp 
Act and all Parliament taxes on the colonies 
were here patriotically denounced and tea 
was duly proscribed. When one hardy soul 
disdained the warning concerning this over- 
taxed beverage, he had to furnish punch 
for the crowd repeating three times as he 
drained his cup, the following chaste coup- 
let: 

" I, Isaac Wilson, a boy I be, 
I, Isaac Wilson, I sells tea." 

The sign of the house was a wooden bell 
and the host informed the people of his good 
cheer by the following strain: 

" Francis Symonds Makes and Sells 
The best of Chocolate also Shells. 
I'll toll you in if you have need, 
And feed you well and bid you speed.** 

A very spirited sign is that which long 
hung before the Benjamin Wiggin tavern 
in Hopkinton, N. H. and which, more lately 
has been identified with the recently-burned 

235 



Among Old New England Inns 

Perkins Inn of that same town. Littleton, 
Massachusetts, displayed before its Law- 
rence Tavern a sign upon which was painted 
a soldier and the excellent advice, " Pay 
Today And Trust Tomorrow." 

About the time of the Revolution tavern- 
signs bearing the head and name of William 
Pitt became very popular in New England. 
The landlord of the tavern at York, Maine, 
put up such a sign and added boldly to it 
the words, " Entertainment For the Sons of 
Liberty." In Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 
as will be seen by reference to the chapter 
which treats the inns of that town, there was 
a less spontaneous honouring of William 
Pitt by a taverner. 

Upon pre-Revolutionary tavern-signs Gen- 
eral Wolfe was a favourite figure. Boston 
had a Wolfe tavern near Faneuil Hall and 
when General Israel Putnam became a land- 
lord at Brooklyn, Connecticut, he hung out 
over his front door a bravely-painted full- 
length of this hero. The Wolfe Tavern at 
Newburyport displavs to this day a bold 
presentment of the English officer's rather 
comical profile. 

Beehives upon tavern signs were by no 
means uncommon. One such bore the motto, 

236 



Tavern Signs — and IVonders 

*^ By industry we thrive " and another this 
rhyme : 

" Here in this hive we are all alive, 
Good liquor makes us funny. 
If you are dry step in and try 
The flavor of our honey.'* 

The Worcester Society of Antiquity owns 
the sign of Walker's Tavern, a famous house 
in Charlestown, New Hampshire, which dis- 
played dozens of realistic bees hovering 
around a properly symmetrical hive! 

The old sign of the inn at Paxton, Massa- 
chusetts shows upon one side Lord Corn- 
wallis and Charles Paxton shaking hands 
across a well-loaded table at which they 
appear to be dining. Over the picture are 
the words: '^ Our good cheer tends to make 
enemies friends." But one must not con- 
clude from this that the poltroon marshal 
of the Admiralty Court of Boston was a 
favourite among the good citizens of this 
town. Such, indeed, was far from being 
the case; they could not forget that Paxton 
had never fulfilled his promise to give them 
a bell for the meeting-house if only they 
would call their settlement after him! Fi- 
nally, they presented to the General Court 

237 



Among Old New England Inns 

of Massachusetts a petition praying that 
their town " Paxton " be changed " to a 
name more agreeable." This petition was 
not granted but it was doubtless a salve to 
the indignation of Paxtonians that the effigy 
of this man, described as '^ an intriguing 
politician and a despicable sycophant" was 
hung in effigy upon the Liberty Tree which 
formerly stood at the corner of Essex and 
Washington streets. 

Signs had their distinct uses, of course, in 
a time when many streets were without name 
or number. The amusing story is told of 
a member of the famous Beef-Steak Club 
frequented by Johnson and Smollett who, 
while spending a day in Calais with Lord 
Sandwich, became so interested in conver- 
sation that he strolled along the ramparts 
far from the Silver Lion Inn at which he 
was a guest. Then, as he could not speak 
a word of French, he was at a loss how to 
find his way back, until he bethought him 
to clap a silver shilling to his mouth and 
assume the attitude of a lion rampant. 
Thereupon, a soldier who supposed him 
deranged, led him very promptly to the inn 
where it was believed his keepers would be 
looking for him. The vigorous lion long 

238 



^^^1 






1 , 


H 




ft 


i 






gm 



Tavern Signs — and Wonders 

displayed before Boltwood's Tavern in Am- 
herst, Massachusetts, may have similarly 
served some muddled mind in days gone by. 
Moreover, the signs helped people to find 
the wonders! The [Boston] Columbian Cen- 
tinal of April 28, 18 10, announces one of 
these as follow^s: 

'' MONSTROUS sight! 

" To be seen at A. Pollard's Tavern, Elm 
street — A white Greenland sea BEAR, 
which was taken at sea, weighing 1000 wt. 
This animal lives either in the sea or on the 
land. They have been seen several leagues 
at sea, and floating on cakes of ice. . . ." 

Sometimes a " whole caravan of living 
animals '' was advertised to be displayed at 
one or another of the taverns. The Salem 
Gazette of Jan. 30, 1824, gives a list which 
reads like a Barnum circus-bill as on ex- 
hibition at the Essex Coffee House, — 
among them " a six-legged heifer " and " the 
ichneumon, an animal famous for destroy- 
ing reptiles' eggs, and is worshipped by the 
Egyptians." A touch which reminds one of 
the Prologue used by Shakespeare's " horny- 
handed men of Athens " lurks in a footnote 

239 



Among Old New England Inns 

assuring the public that ^' the room is con- 
veniently fitted, so that Ladies and Gentle- 
men can view the animals with perfect 
safety!' 

Once, at least, a New England tavern ap- 
pears to have been the scene of a bull-fight. 
The afifair was thus heralded in the Essex 
Register of June, 1809: 

" SPORTSMEN, ATTEND ! 

"The gentlemen SPORTSMEN of this 
town and its vicinity are informed that a 
Grand Combat will take place between the 
URUS, ZEBU, and Spanish BULL, on the 
4th of July, if fair weather, if not the next 
day, at the HALF-WAY HOUSE on the 
Salem Turnpike. There will also be ex- 
posed at the Circus, other Animals which, 
for courage strength and sagacity are in- 
ferior to none." Again the reassuring land- 
lord adds that " No danger need be appre- 
hended during the performance!" 



240 



» 



CHAPTER XII 

OLD TAVERN DAYS IN NEWBURY 

That Thomas Hale whose appointment 
as justice Samuel Sewall opposed in 1721 
on the ground that '^ he hath lately kept an 
ordinary and sold rum " was the first of a 
long series of Newbury landlords who ulti- 
mately attained distinction in the town^s af- 
fairs. Described as a man of immense size 
(he is said to have weighed over five hun- 
dred pounds!) with a strong and sonorous 
voice that could be heard at a great distance, 
he was long captain of the militia and, in 
spite of Judge Sewall, became a successful 
justice of the peace. But he was not by a 
good deal the first innkeeper in the town. 
The earliest license was granted almost a 
century earlier (in 1635) to Francis Plumer. 
This was the very year of the town's incor- 
poration. Four years later Edmund Green- 
leaf was ordered to be ensign for Newbury 
and allowed to keep a house of entertain- 

241 



Among Old New England Inns 

ment; and by 1644 '* Tristram Coffyn Sr. 
is allowed to keep an ordinary, sell wine 
and keep a ferry on the Newbury Side . . . 
of Carr's island." 

Tristram Cofifyn possessed a clever wife 
whose superior intellect had the efifect, as 
not infrequently happens, of getting her hus- 
band into trouble. The County records for 
September 1653 say that "Tristram Coffyn's 
wife, Dionis, was presented for selling beer," 
at his ordinary in Newbury, " for 3 pence 
a qt." Having proved, " upon the testimony 
of Samuel Moores, that she put 6 bushels of 
malt into the hogshead she was discharged." 
The law which she was supposed to have 
violated had been passed in 1645, and or- 
dained that " every person licensed to keep 
an ordinary shall always be provided with 
good wholesome beer of 4 bushels of malt 
to the hogshead, which he shall not sell 
above 2 pence the ale qt on penalty of 40 
shillings the first offence & for the second 
he shall lose his license." Goodwife Coffyn 
had merely worked out a problem in pro- 
portion (?) and demanded a higher return 
for what she represented as better beer. 

This progenitor of the Newbury Coffins 
was also the founder of the Nantucket fam- 

242 



Old Tavern Days in Newbury 

ily of the same name. He had not long 
been keeping the ferry and selling beer when 
he disposed of all his property on the Mer- 
rimac to remove to the island town. His 
son, Tristram Jr., fell heir, by marriage, to 
another ordinary, the house now known as 
the Coffin house. (Edmund Greenleaf's li- 
cense had been transferred in 1650 to Henry 
Somerby, his son-in-law, and upon Somer- 
by's death in 1652, young Coffin took over 
the widow and the house.) He was deacon 
of the first church in Newbury and lived in 
this house for more than half a century pass- 
ing the property down, upon his death, to 
his youngest son, Nathaniel. Nathaniel 
abode here until he was eighty, discharging 
meanwhile many offices of trust in the col- 
ony. His son, Colonel Joseph Coffin, born 
December 30, 1702, was the next occupant 
of the house, and for nearly thirty years 
acted as the town's clerk. He had eight 
children, two of whom, the Rev. Paul Cof- 
fin D. D. and Charles Coffin M. D. were 
graduated at Harvard. Another son, Joshua, 
occupied the half of the house not given 
over to his father's use. His children — 
there were finally twelve of them — in- 
creased to such an extent that he was obliged 

243 



Among Old New England Inns 

to ask for leave to enlarge the old roof-tree 
and the letter in which he did this gives us 
a vivid glimpse of a family quarrel. It 
reads : 

" Honored Sir, 

" 'Tis in your power to make my life (as 
to outward circumstances) either Happy or 
Miserable & I am sure 'twould be with the 
Greatest Regrett I should do anything to 
Render your life uneasy. I don't ask you 
to give me house or land at present, although 
I don't think in that case I should be un- 
reasonable (considering my family Increases 
so fast), but at present I only ask Leave to 
build a Bedroom chimney on my own cost 
for our present comfort. Which when you 
have properly weighed the affair & Consid- 
ered what you have done for Bro. David 
and Paul, not to mention Boyd, for their 
convenience, & my present need of what I 
ask, I Cant suppose you will single me out 
from the rest of your children as an object 
of your Displeasure. Since I don't know 
as either of them have done more to merit 
your favour, I now Intreat you, Sr, in this 
Request to treat me only as a son, whose 
happiness so much depends on your appro- 

244 



Old Tavern Days in Newbury 

bation & afection. I am Sr, with all Due 
Reverence & Duty 

^' Your Dependent son, 
"Joshua Coffin." 

Hard indeed must have been the heart 
which could have withstood this plea for a 
chimney! Joshua Coffin, the historian of 
Newbury, lived and died in this house. He, 
like all the descendants of the innkeeper 
Tristram, followed and adorned gentlemanly 
pursuits. 

Another early taverner of Newbury was 
Hugh March, licensed in 1670 by the court 
at Ipswich " to keep an ordinary and sell 
strong drink." For several years previous 
to March's appointment, there seems to have 
been considerable difficulty in finding a 
person well suited to the profession of inn- 
keeper for, two years before. Captain Paul 
White had undertaken the work rather 
under protest. White already sold liquor 
in a wholesale way, and, once introduced to 
the new occupation, seems to have taken to 
it very well. At any rate we must so con- 
clude from finding that his wife petitions 
in 1682, three years after his death, to have 



245 



Among Old New England Inns 

the license he had taken out transferred to 
her. 

Meanwhile our friend March, who had 
begun to keep his famous Blue Anchor Inn 
because he wanted to, became involved in 
quite an interesting domestic complication. 
When his license was granted he had bought 
an " antient tavern " of Stephen Swett and 
expended a large sum of money in repairing 
and enlarging it. Then his good wife Ju- 
dith died and he married Dorcas, the daugh- 
ter of Daniel Bowman of Connecticut, whom 
he believed to be a widow but who, as he 
was subsequently persuaded, was a deserted 
wife instead. They had been living together 
two years when he learned that her first hus- 
band was alive and in Virginia! The affi- 
davits, numbering nine in all, in which 
Hugh and his sons asserted that the woman 
had all the while had knowledge of her 
husband's existence, are on file at the offi.ce 
of the clerk of the Supreme Court in Bos- 
ton and make very interesting reading. The 
decision of the General Court went against 
March, however, for it reads " In the case 
now in Court, touching Hugh March & 
Dorcas, his wife, the Court, upon what they 
have heard alledged by them both in the 

246 



Old Tavern Days in Newbury 

case and duly considered thereof, do judge 
that the said March ought to take the said 
Dorcas & retayne hir as a wife, and to ob- 
serve and & fuUfiU the marriage Covenant 
according to his engagement." Mrs. March's 
statement that the whole story had been 
built upon the malice and ill-will of March's 
children had evidently made due impression 
upon the Court. 

But March refused to accept the decision 
and, rather than support the wife urged 
upon him by the judge, sold all his real 
estate, — except just enough for his own 
uses, — and so was, of course temporarily 
disqualified from serving as innkeeper. His 
idea appears to have been to continue the 
trade through his son John, but as he soon 
quarrelled with him, also, we finally find 
him left high and dry, though still keeping 
up a good fight for what he conceived to be 
his rights. The petition he sent to the Ips- 
wich court at this stage of the game is most 
quaint and interesting. 

'^ To the honderd County Court sitting at 
Ipswich this 26 of September 1682 

''The petition of Hugh March of New- 
bury humbly showeth. That whereas the 
towne of Newbury being destitute of an 

247 



Among Old New England Inns 

ordinary for neer two yeres, being find twise, 
and likely to be fined the 3rd time, and 
could find no man that would undertack it, 
divers of the most considerable men of the 
towne applyed themselves to mee to keepe 
the ordinary, at which time i had no need of 
it or inclination to it, being well sat'ld upon 
a farme of my owne which was suffitiant to 
maintaine me; but by the of ton porsuasions 
and solicitations of those men I was wiling, 
provided I might have the free consent of 
the towne and the approbation of the Court, 
which I had freely and fully in a publick 
towne meting, by way of voate and by this 
court's free exceptacion, which moved mee 
to purchase at a deare rate that place which 
was the antient place of an ordinary, wch 
being out of repaire caused me to disburse 
great sums of mooney in repairing the ould 
and building new to fit it for the townes 
and cuntrys benifit, which caused me to sell 
one good farme and wholy to leave my farm 
that I lived uppone. 

'^ The ordinary that I bought, tho old and 
out of repayer, cost me 120 lb besids to the 
valeu of more than 440 lb I layd out in 
building barn, stable and housing, with bed- 
ding &c to fite myselfe for giving publick 

248 



Old Tavern Days in Newbury 

conveniant entertainment for the country 
and towne. 

"This ordinary was by me kept about 12 
yeres, and no man had just reason to com- 
plaine for want of anything that was con- 
veniant, nor did yt ever I heard. Besides 
the law saith, page 82, that no man shall lose 
his licance before he be convicted of some 
broache of law, which i never was: 

" Altho I put the ordinary out of my 
hands for a time, yet it was for my lively 
hood and that I might live by it as an or- 
dinary. 

" It hath bene the uisiall custom of courts 
and townes to put antiant persons into such 
places and callings to bee a help to them, 
rather than to turn them out after ail thayr 
cost to ye undoing and that because the pres- 
ent selectmen do not give ye approbation 
under thayre hands. I had not only the 
aprobation of the selectmen, but of the towne 
also, and of this hondred court for 12 years 
together, and tharfor hope yt this hondred 
court will consider my case, and not to suf- 
fer any man to be undon by the by and selfe 
ends of any selectmen; for, if so, the country 
will scarsly ever be well provided for with 
an ordinary to content, wch will be a dis- 

249 



Among Old New England Inns 

grace to the country in other places in the 
wourld, for who will lay out such an estate 
to keep an ordinary to be at the mercy of 
the next new selectman whether he shall 
hould it above one yeare or no? 

*' This hondred court hauing in some 
measure understood how i committed my 
estate to my sone, and the way that he haue 
had to deprife mee of my licanse and like- 
wise of my estate, wch i am depely soncable 
of my afflicttion, being further agrivated by 
his execution granted from the hondred 
court of asistence wch I presume your hon- 
ors are not unsonsable of: he hauing little 
mercy on his father, I hope you, the fathers 
of the land will haufe more mercy upon 
mee. 

" In granting yr poore petioner his licence 
for the ordinary as formerly, wch (under 
correction) I conceive is but a rationall re- 
quest, either to my self or som other yt may 
be put in, so that I may haue the bonifit of 
that my estate in that way as formerly, and 
in so doing you shall oblidg your humbe 
petioner, to pray. HUGH MARCH." 

The Ipswich court did not grant this re- 
quest, but the Boston authorities, to whom 

250 



Old Tavern Days in Newbury 

March then appealed, looked with more 
favour on his cause, and, in April, 1683, he 
was again licensed '' to keepe a house of 
publick entertainment in Newbury," — the 
wife who had precipitated all this to-do hav- 
ing considerately died the month before. 

A hundred years later there were at least 
two very famous taverns in '' ould New- 
bury;" Nathaniel Low's almanac for 1788 
gives the names of all the most noted inn- 
holders on the road from Boston to Ports- 
mouth and those he mentions in Newbury 
are Oliver Putnam, who kept what has lat- 
terly been known as the lUsley house, and 
William Davenport, proprietor of the Wolfe 
Tavern. Oliver Putnam had formerly been 
a blacksmith and scythe-maker and it is very 
likely that he preferred his early calling. 
Certain it is that, after keeping a public 
house for about fifteen years, he sold out to 
Isaiah Illsley, who retained possession of 
the place until May 25, 1802, when he passed 
the estate over to Stephen Illsley Jr. By 
this time it had ceased to be an inn and so 
its history does not properly concern us any 
longer. 

The Wolfe Tavern was much more persist- 
ently hospitable. When William Davenport 

251 



Among Old New England Inns 

bought the house in 1743 he was a carver, 
not an innkeeper at all, and he occupied the 
place as private residence for nearly twenty 
years. But in 1762 he caused extensive alter- 
ations and additions to be made to it and 
opened it as a house of entertainment for 
travellers hanging out as a sign a board 
adorned with the features of General Wolfe, 
his hero. For William Davenport had been 
the captain of a company that had gone to 
help Wolfe at Quebec. There is a tradition 
that he gave his wife a guinea when he left 
Newbury in 1759 to join the troops and the 
story further goes that, by prudence and 
economy, she was able to return the guinea 
to him, unused, when he returned home. 
Very like this guinea helped to buy the 
extra furnishings necessary to the transfor- 
mation of his house into an inn. Be this as 
it may Davenport had been on the Plains of 
Abraham with his company September 13, 
1759, the day when Wolfe gave up his life 
in the service of his country and it was with 
a fine sense of loyalty that he displayed the 
great General's portrait. 

This tavern at the corner of Threadneedle 
Alley and Fish Street (now State Street) 
soon became a very popular place of resort. 

252 



Old Tavern Days in Newbury 

John J. Currier, who has written lovingly 
of " ould Newbury " says that under its roof 
the hungry and thirsty found comfort, shel- 
ter, good suppers and good wine. '' Satur- 
day evening, from all parts of the town, men 
came to the tavern to hear the news and to 
discuss politics, theology and the state of the 
crops. During the winter months farmers 
from the surrounding country brought pork, 
butter, grain, eggs and poultry to market, 
and gathered in the capacious bar-room at 
night, around the cheerful blazing fire, to 
while away the time with mugs of flip and 
mulled cider. The land travel from Maine 
and the eastern part of New Hampshire 
passed through Newbury on the way to Bos- 
ton; and Wolfe Tavern or Davenport's inn, 
as it was often called, soon grew to be fa- 
mous." In the early days of Masonry St. 
Peter's Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons 
often met at Mr. Davenport's inn and the 
Newburyport Marine Society for many 
years held its regular monthly assemblies 
there. 

In the days preceding the recall of the 
Stamp Act the house was a hot-bed of rebel- 
lion as may be seen from the following tav- 
ern bill which has come down from William 

253 



Among Old New England Inns 

Davenport to a lineal descendant, George 
Davenport of Boston: 

** Dr. Messrso Joseph Stanwood & Others of the 
Town of Newburyport for Sundry expences at My 
House on Thirsday, Septr. 26th, a. Do 1765c At the 
Grate Uneasiness and Tumult on Occasion of the 
Stamp Act. 

To William Davenport Old Tenor 

To 3 Double Bowls punch by Capt. Robud's 
Order ;£ 3, 7, 6 

To 7 Double Bowls of punch 7, 7, 6 

To Double Bowl of Egg Toddy - • 14, 

To Double Bowl 22/6 Single bowl 11/3 1,13, 9 
To Double Bowl Punch 22/6 Double bowl 
toddy 12/ I, i4» 6 

To Bowl Punch 11 / 3 Bowl Toddy 6/ 17, 3 

To Double Bowl Toddy 12/ bowl punch 

11/3 I. 3»3 

To Double Bowl Punch 22/6 Nip Toddy 3/1, 5, 6 
To Mug FHp 5 / To a Thrible Bowl Punch 

33/9 1,18,9 

To Double Bowl Punch 22 / 6 To a thrible 

Bowl Ditto 33/9 22, 16, 3 

To Double Bowl Punch 22/6 I, 2, 6 

To a Double Bowl Punch 22/6 i, 2, 6 

To Thrible Bowl Punch 33/9 Double Bowl 

Ditto II / 3 2, 16, 3 

To Double Bowl Punch 22/6 Bowl Ditto 

n/3 i>i3»9 

254 



Old Tavern Days in Newbury 

To Double Bowl Punch 22/6 To Double 
Ditto 22/6 Bowl 2, 5, 

To 6 Lemons 15/ To Bowl of Punch 11 /3 i, 6, 3 
To 2 Double Bowls Punch 2, 5, 

To Double Bowie Punch 22/6 bowl Punch 

11/3 I, I3» 9 
To 2 Double Bowls Punch i / 5 To bowl 

Punch 11/ 3 2, 16, 3 
To Bowl Punch II / 3 To Bowl Punch 11 /3 i, 2, 6 

To the Suppers which were cooked Hot 2, 5, 

To 8 Double Bowls Punch after Supper 9, 
To Double Bowl Toddy 12/ Bowl Punch 

II /3 I, 2,6 

To Bowl Egg Toddy 7 / 7, 

To 6 pintes and \ of Spirits @ 10/ per pint 3, 5, 

To a Breakfast of Coffee for Sd Company 2, 5, 

59» 17. 3 
Lawful Money 7, 19, 7 J 

Newbury Port 28 Sept. 1765 

Errors excepted William Davenport.'* 

On the extreme right of the bill is also a 
credit account of eleven pounds received in 
various sums from Captain Robud, Richard 
Farrow and one Celeby. Five days after 
this night of revelry at the Wolfe Tavern 
the effigy of the officer who had accepted the 
post of stamp distributor in Newburyport 
was hung from a large elm tree near the 

25s 



Among Old New England Inns 

inn and, when the tar barrels underneath 
had been set on fire its rope was cut and the 
image dropped into the flames. Very likely 
the idea of this act came during the con- 
sumption of those many " Double Bowls 
punch " Landlord Davenport had brought 
out in response to clamorous demands. 

This good Boniface died September 2, 
1773, and was buried on the crest of the Old 
Hill burying ground, near the Hill Street 
entrance. His immediate successor at the 
inn was his son Anthony, but he was soon 
relieved by Moses Davenport, a brother who 
had a distinct gift for the calling. Under 
his management the patrons of the house in- 
creased and the business prospered amaz- 
ingly. Among the notabilities entertained 
here was the Marquis de Chastellux who 
with Baron de Talleyrand, M. de Vaudreuil 
and M. Lynch de Montesquieu, grandson of 
the famous author, travelled through New 
England in 1782. The Marquis in the sec- 
ond volume of his Travels (page 240) gives 
an interesting description of his visit to New- 
buryport and of his entertainment there: 

" The road from Portsmouth to Newbury 
passes through a barren country. Hampton 
is the only township you meet with. ... It 

256 



Old Tavern Days in Newbury 

was two o'clock when we reached Merimack 
ferry and from the shore we saw the open- 
ings of the harbor, the channel of which 
passes near the northern extremity of Plum 
Island, on which is a small fort, with a few 
cannon and mortars. . . . After passing the 
ferry in little flat boats which held only five 
horses each, we went to Mr. Davenport's 
Inn, where we found a good dinner ready. 
I had letters from Mr. Wentworth to Mr. 
John Tracy, the most considerable merchant 
in the place; but, before I had time to send 
them, he had heard of my arrival, and as I 
was rising from table, entered the room, and 
very politely invited me to pass the evening 
with him. He was accompanied by a Colo- 
nel, whose name is too difficult for me to 
write, having never been able to catch the 
manner of pronouncing it; but it was some- 
thing like Wigsteps " [probably Colonel 
Edward Wigglesworth]. This Colonel re- 
mained with me till Mr. Tracy finished his 
business, when he came with two handsome 
carriages well-equipped and conducted me 
and my Aide de Campe to his country house. 
This house stands a mile from the town in 
a very beautiful situation; but of this I 
could myself form no judgment as it was 

257 



Among Old New England Inns 

already night. I went, however, by moon- 
light to see the garden, which is composed 
of different terraces. There is likewise a 
hothouse and a number of young trees. The 
house is very handsome and well furnished, 
and everything breathes that air of magnifi- 
cence, accompanied with simplicity, which 
is only to be found amongst merchants. 

" The evening passed rapidly by the aid 
of agreeable conversation and a few glasses 
of punch. The ladies we found assembled 
were Mrs. Tracy, her two sisters, and their 
cousin. Miss Lee. Mrs. Tracy has an agree- 
able and a sensible countenance and her man- 
ners correspond with her appearance. At 
ten o'clock an excellent supper was served; 
we drank good wine. Miss Lee sung, and 
prevailed on Messieurs de Vaudreuil and 
Taleyrand to sing also. Towards midnight 
the ladies withdrew but we continued drink- 
ing Maderia and Xery. Mr. Tracy, accord- 
ing to the custom of the country, offered us 
pipes, which were accepted by M. de Taley- 
rand and M. de Montesquieu, the conse- 
quence of which was that they became intox- 
icated and were led home, where they were 
happy to get to bed. As to myself, I re- 
mained perfectly cool, and continued to con- 

258 




RESPECTFULLY LNFOHM vmi PlIUJC , 

liat they hav^ put ui compffh <('/)tiir fhni udi kiww 
TAVEfiN Forfiurty kept (ix M' iKwKM'ri r 
SIGN OF 

XEWB V ilVPO liT. 



hi ,■ 



"hdfi Iff//, //.. 



NOTICE OF PRINCE STETSON REGARDING HIS TAKING 
CHARGE OF THE WOLFE TAVERN 



Old Tavern Days in Newbury 

verse on trade and politics with Mr. Tracy 
who interested me greatly with an account 
of all the vicissitudes of his fortune since 
the beginning of the war. ... I left New- 
buryport the thirteenth at ten in the morn- 
ing and often stopped before I lost sight 
of this pretty little town." Apparently this 
sprig of the French nobility found the Wolfe 
Tavern a house to make one regretful at leav- 
ing. 

In 1804, Thomas Perkins, who had for 
some years served at the old stand under 
Moses Davenport, was licensed as an inn- 
holder and assumed control of the Tavern 
on his own account. By 1807, however. 
Prince Stetson is found to be the landlord, 
— and during his incumbency it was that 
the famous old building perished in the 
great Newburyport fire. 

Almost the last public occurrence of im- 
portance with which the original Wolfe Tav- 
ern may be connected is, therefore, New- 
buryport's first celebration of Washington's 
birthday, in the year 1796. The president 
had many warm friends in the town, and, 
because they knew that he intended soon to 
retire from public life they caused the fol- 
lowing to be printed in the local paper early 

259 



Among Old New England Inns 

in February, '' At the desire of several gen- 
tlemen it is requested of those who incline 
to meet in celebration of the Birthday of 
the President on Monday next the 22nd in- 
stant, that they call or send and enter their 
names by Saturday noon or before with Mr. 
Richardson at the Union Hall, where it is 
proposed to dine on that day at 2 o'clock." 

This announcement met with a hearty re- 
sponse and in addition to the dinner at 
Union Hall, — ^ where there were toasts and 
long speeches in praise of Washington, — a 
large number of merchants and mechanics 
sat down to a similar repast in the Wolfe 
Tavern. Thus, very appropriately, the old 
building is linked to the present mode of 
honouring the memory of our most distin- 
guished citizen. 

Prince Stetson was not to be daunted by 
fire, however, in his laudable desire to serve 
the Newburyport public in a hostelry named 
the Wolfe Tavern. Only two weeks after 
the conflagration we find him informing his 
friends and the public that he shall open 
his Tavern on Monday next " in the House 
of Col. Bartlett, State St., where he solicits 
their favors." Bartlett's house proved to be 
only a temporary accommodation for the 

260 



Old Tavern Days in Newbury 

tavern; three years later, Mr. Stetson re- 
moved to Salem and Benjamin Hale set up 
the sign of General Wolfe at the corner of 
State and Harris streets where it still swings. 
It is interesting to note that the sign had 
remained in its place all through the Revo- 
lutionary War, notwithstanding the hatred 
of everything which savoured of royal 
power. Once, to be sure, the Essex Journal 
declared that this portrait of General Wolfe, 
displayed in the very centre of the place " is 
an insult to the inhabitants of this truly 
republican town." But, fortunately, there 
were still some older inhabitants who re- 
called the ardent love which had prompted 
William Davenport to name his inn after 
the hero of Quebec and the obnoxious sign 
was allowed to swing on unmolested. Not 
long ago it was repainted by a well-known 
artist and to-day it is a very interesting and 
stately reminder of old tavern days in New- 
bury. 

Not that the Wolfe Tavern had a rrton- 
opoly all that time of public entertain- 
ment in the town. The Essex Gazette of 
January, 1771, proves the contrary by this 
notice : 



261 



Among Old New England Inns 

"INN AT NEWBURY-PORT 

"William Lambert, from Yorkshire in 
England, begs Leave to inform the Publick 
that he has taken the Inn at Newbury- Port, 
formerly occupied by Mr. Choate, which is 
now completely repaired, and new furnished 
with convenient Furniture, and the greatest 
variety of excellent LIQUORS. He has 
also provided commodious Stabling for 
Horses and every Accommodation for Trav- 
ellers and others. He humbly intreats Cus- 
tom and will strive by his good Entertain- 
ment to merit the Publick Favour, at the 
Sign of the Wentworth Arms, near the 
Ferry, in Newburyport." 

Six months later we find that Robert 
Calder from London, who writes himself 
down as " late servant to his excellency Gov- 
ernor Wentworth," has purchased William 
Lambert's lease and offers, in addition to 
the attractions of his predecessor's advertise- 
ment " best Entertainement with diligent at- 
tendance." Not for nothing had he bent 
to the imperious will of Governor Went- 
worth, it would appear. 

Major Ezra Lunt was another of the late 
eighteenth century innkeepers in Newbury, 

262 



Old Tavern Days in Newbury 

adding the calling of publican quite easily 
to that of publisher, stagecoach proprietor 
and veteran of the Continental army. His 
inn was on the northwesterly side of Fed- 
eral street, near the corner of Water street. 
The splurge par excellence in the inn- 
keeping way was made, however, by the 
enterprising landlord who advertised at the 
SIGN OF THE AMERICAN EAGLE in 
the summer of 1799. Under this patriotic 
headline ^' Samuel Richardson Informs his 
friends and the public in general that he 
has removed from Union Hall into that spa- 
cious and convenient building lately occu- 
pied by Captain Ebenezer Stocker, East 
Corner of the Ferryway Wharf, — which 
he has opened for public Entertainment and 
will make every exertion to gratify and 
please those who may visit his House. Every 
favor will be gratefully acknowledged, 
Good accommodation for a few Boarders: 
likewise Stabling for Horses." It is inter- 
esting in this connection to note that the 
Newburyport selectmen had fixed by law 
the price of these various items of service. 
So, because the landlords could not under- 
bid in price they overbade in attractions. 
The law placed '^ Dinners at taverns, for 

263 



Among Old New England Inns 

travellers, of boiled or roast meat, with other 
articles equivalent, exclusive of wine at i /,6. 
Supper and breakfast r/ each. Lodging 
4/. Keeping a horse for one night, or for 
twenty-four hours, with English hay 2/ — ." 

The Tracy house, which had accommo- 
dated Washington, became briefly the Sun 
Hotel, early in the eighteenth century, its 
proprietor, Jacob Coburn, informing the 
public (May 5, 1807), under a sign which 
quite effectively reflected the features of Old 
Sol, " that he has opened a spacious HOTEL 
in State street, Newburyport, the former 
mansion of the late Honorable Nathaniel 
Tracy Esq., and where Mr. James Prince 
last resided. Having at considerable pains 
and expense put the above in a situation 
suited to accommodate gentlemen he assures 
them with confidence that they will find 
every convenience and an unremitting atten- 
tion to ensure the favor of the Traveller. 
Good horses and carriages to be had at all 
hours." 

The dwelling-house of the eccentric 
" Lord " Timothy Dexter also descended 
temporarily to tavern uses, heralded by the 
following genial announcement: '^ The sub- 
scriber of Weare N. H. acquaints the public 

264 



Old Tavern Days in Newbury 

that he has taken the noted house on High 
Street, Newburyport, known by the name of 
Dexter House (where the Lion and the 
Lamb lie down together in peace and where 
the first characters in the land are known 
to make their stay) which he opened on the 
20th ult. as a house of Entertainment for 
the weary traveller who may sojourn thither, 
and for the conviviality of the jovial citizens 
of the town who may wish to spend a social 
hour freed from the cares of busy life; and 
he respectfully solicits their company, fully 
persuaded that he shall be enabled to afford 
them satisfaction. Country people are in- 
formed that he will entertain them as rea- 
sonably and with as good cheer, both for 
man and beast, as any regular Innkeeper 
between McGregor's Bridge and Newbury 
port, having commodious and convenient 
stables with good attendance. He flatters 

himself they will call and see 

William Caldwell." This advertisement 
might have been written yesterday, so mod- 
ern is its tone and so little archaic its spell- 
ing. Yet its date is April, 1810. 

Prince Stetson, formerly of the Wolfe 
Tavern, returned to Newburyport in 1823 
and assumed charge of the Washington hotel 

265 



Among Old New England Inns 

on the corner of State and Temple streets. 
He had the honour of serving Lafayette 
when the Marquis visited the town in 1824, 
and took the spacious apartments in the 
Tracy house which Washington had occu- 
pied during his visit in 1789. The land- 
lord's son, Charles, then a lad of thirteen, 
had the honour of acting as valet de chambre 
to the liberty-lover who had done so much 
for America in her hour of need. 

A tavern which is constantly mentioned 
in John Quincy Adams's account of his 
young manhood days in Newburyport is 
Sawyer's on the Bradford road at or near 
Brown's springs, and within the present lim- 
its of the town of West Newbury. One in- 
teresting entry in the diary of this law stu- 
dent is that of May 21, 1788. " I walked," 
he says, '' with Pickman in the evening to 
Sawyer's where we drank tea and made it 
almost ten o'clock before we got home. I 
then went up with my flute to Stacy's lodg- 
ings, our general headquarters. About a 
quarter before twelve Stacy, Thompson, 
Putnam with a couple of young lads by the 
name of Greenough and myself sallied forth 
upon a scheme of serenading. We paraded 
round town till almost four in the morning." 

266 



Old Tavern Days in Newbury 

The charming home of Mrs. Harriett 
Prescott Spofiford, near Newburyport's pic- 
turesque chain bridge, was once a tavern, 
also. It was then close to the public high- 
way and its landlord, Ebenezer Pearson, was 
therefore not exempt from suspicion when 
Major Elijah P. Goodridge of Bangor, 
Maine, told, December 19, 18 16, of having 
been assaulted about nine o'clock the previ- 
ous evening, very near its doors, and robbed 
of a large sum of money. Pearson proved 
to be only one of the many who were sub- 
sequently accused, however, and, when Dan- 
iel Webster took the matter in hand he made 
Goodridge so contradict himself on the wit- 
ness-stand that verdicts of '' not guilty " were 
brought in for all the defendants. The 
whole thing appears to have emanated from 
the brain of the Major who, in order to 
escape financial trouble and at the same time 
account for the loss of his personal property, 
devised the scheme of a robbery and carried 
it into effect, firing with his own hand the 
pistol of the " assailant." 

One Newburyport tavern-keeper was a 
good deal more permanently embarrassed by 
the cleverness of one of his guests, as we 
shall see from the following papers on file 

267 



Among Old New England Inns 

at the State House in Boston and having to 
do with the escape of Bridget Phillips, who 
had been sent to Newburyport for safe keep- 
ing during the siege of Boston: 

" To the Honorable Provincial Congress 
at Watertown, June 22, 1775 

" The petition of Bridget Philips humbly 
showeth that she hath lately arrived from 
Ireland and is desirous of going to her hus- 
band now in Boston. She therefore prays 
the Honorable Congress that they would 
give her a permit to go into the town of 
Boston & your petitioners as in duty bound 
will ever pray. BRIDGET Philips." 

In answer to this petition the following 
resolution was adopted June 24, 1775: — 
" Resolved, that General Ward do not suf- 
fer or permit Bridget Phillips, wife to an 
officer under General Gage, to go into Bos- 
ton, nor any other person whatever, without 
leave first obtained of this Congress, or some 
future house of representatives; and that 
an express be forthwith sent to the committee 
of safety for the town of Newburyport, to 
order them to take the most affectual meas- 



268 



Old Tavern Days in Newbury 

ures to prevent the said Bridget from going 
out of this province, or to Boston." 

The lady got the better of the law-makers, 
however, as the following letter shows: — 

" Newburyport, 26th July, 1775, 

"Sir: — 

" We received some time since a Resolve 
of the late Congress ordering that Bridget 
Phillips (who called herself the wife of a 
Captain Phillips in Gen. Gage's Army) 
should not leave the Province & that the 
Committee here be desired to attend to her. 
Upon the receipt of it we applied to the 
Tavern Keeper, at whose house she was, to 
keep an eye upon her movements & to in- 
form us should she take any suspicious steps, 
at the same time informing her that she must 
not leave the Province. This she judged 
to be very harsh but appeared for a month 
past so to acquiesce in it as to elude any 
suspicion in us that she would take pains for 
her escape. Upon the arrival of the New 
General at Cambridge she seemed to flatter 
herself, her case might be more tenderly 
considered by them & that upon application 
they would permit her to go to her husband. 



269 



Among Old New England Inns 

This she mentioned to several of the com- 
mittee but was told she must not go to Cam- 
bridge without consent of a majority of 
them. However that she never asked & the 
1 8th Inst, she took place in a Chaise with 
Capt. John Blake (formerly of Boston) 
from hence to Salem, giving out that she 
was going to Head Quarters at Cambridge. 
The Tavern Keeper (Mr. Greenleaf) sup- 
posing it not beyond the limits by the Order 
& from a faulty Inattention never gave the 
Committee notice. It was not for a day or 
two known by us that she was gone. Upon 
enquiry we find that she hired a Chaise & 
Boy at Salem & in company with Benjn 
Jenks (who is said to belong to Casco Bay) 
she went the next day to Haverhill & the 
next to Portsmouth & by the assistance of 
this Jenks procured herself to be put on 
board the Scarborough Man of War there. 
This Intelligence was bro't us by the said 
Mr. Greenleaf whom we sent in pursuit of 
her. 

" As she was a Woman & appeared of 
Some Fashion we did not think it expedient 
to put her under close Confinement neither 
did we suppose by the Order it was intended. 



270 



Old Tavern Days in Newbury 

She left here two Trunks supposed to con- 
tain valuable apparrell which might prevent 
in Mr. Greenleaf the apprehention of her 
intending to go off. We judged it proper 
to give you this information & as she wrote 
for her Trunks to be sent to Boston we beg 
your Order about the delivery of 'em. Upon 
this occasion give us leave to remark what 
we hinted formerly to the Committee of 
War at Cambridge the ease with which an 
escape may at any time be made to the sta- 
tioned ship at Portsmh as things are now 
ordered. We are respectfully 

" Your obedt servnts 
"JON A. TITCOMB. 
" p. order of the Committee. 
"To the Honb. James Warren, Esq., 
speaker of the House of Representatives, 
to be communicated." 

The result of all this was that, though 
Bridget did not get her trunks, Landlord 
Greenleaf was made pretty uncomfortable, 

— and what was of far greater importance, 

— the seaport towns were given leave to do 
whatever might seem to them wise in the 
way of preventing other such escapes. 



271 



Among Old New England Inns 

The privileges of tavern-keeping were so 
great that often a man vsrith every right to 
whatever his house might earn was made 
exceedingly uncomfortable by his rivals. 
Such was the case with the host of the Boyn- 
ton Tavern on the road between Newbury- 
port and Rowley. In March, 1811, the 
other landlords of Byfield protested against 
Boynton's tavern, stating that while it had 
been established for some time they doubted 
whether its continued existence was neces- 
sary. " The influence of this tavern is per- 
nicious to the morals, the peace and comfort 
of some families in the vicinity," declares 
the protest; after which it goes on to allege 
that " the undersigned are credibly informed 
that people are there at very unreasonable 
hours in the night " and that " even the holy 
Sabbath is profaned by persons who there 
pass the Sacred hours in an idle and disso- 
lute manner." Whereupon the petitioners 
humbly prayed " that the license of Mr. 
Boynton may not be renewed." 

Somehow, though, the tavern lived on, and 
once it was even able to add to its capacity, 
thereby bestowing the name of Adding upon 
the latest scion of the family. Another child 
of this eccentric landlord had been called 

272 




HOME OF MRS. HARRIETT PRESCOTT SPOFFORD, 
NEWBURYPORT 




BOYNTON TAVERN, ON THE NEWBURYPORT ROAD 



Old Tavern Days in Newbury 

Tearing because tavern-repairs were in that 
stage of development at his birth. Verily, 
some of those old time publicans were men 
of decided originality! 



■73 



CHAPTER XIII 

THE INNS OF IPSWICH 

Few New England towns of the twentieth 
century preserve so much of the aspect of 
^' ye olden times " as Ipswich, Massachu- 
setts. Dozens of its houses, still occupied as 
homes, date back more than a century, and 
of these a fair number have, happily for us, 
been at some time in their history a tavern. 
Our forefathers, it must be remembered in 
explanation of this, knew nothing of the 
luxury of hot tea and coffee and so if they 
would drink anything but water, malt beer 
and other spirituous drinks had to be sup- 
plied and dispensed by somebody. In the 
records of Ipswich the malster and the tav- 
ern-keeper appear very early. The first li- 
cense to sell was granted Robert Roberts by 
the Court of Assistants in 1635 and soon 
many men of high reputation sought like 
privilege; in 1652 Mr. Robert Payne, Mr. 
Bartholomew and Jeremy Belcher all re- 

274 



The Inns of Ipswich 

ceived licenses. Deacon Moses Pengry also 
kept an ordinary and dispensed spirit! 

The manner in which the deacon came to 
be a taverner is interesting because charac- 
teristic of the times. Corporal John An- 
drews had been his predecessor in the stand 
on High street known for far and wide as 
the White Horse. But because the corporal 
kept his bar open after nine o'clock and 
encouraged young men to drink a petition 
protesting against the renewal of his license 
was presented to the Court. The license 
was accordingly renewed only '^ until Salem 
Court" where in June 1658 a second peti- 
tion was filed in which it was alleged that 
the recalling of Andrews' privileges " will 
be an afifectual meanes for Ye remooving of 
much sin and evill and minister cause of joy 
and thanksgiving to many of gods people, 
amongst us." 

In answer we find a statement that '^ the 
Court having considered of the petetion of 
many of the Inhabitants of Ipswich, to- 
gether with Ye complaint and information 
of divers strangers for want of needfull and 
convenient acomodation and entertaynment 
at the other ordinarye and the intymation 
of the selectmen of the need of two in that 

27s 



Among Old New England Inns 

town, have thought meet to license Corporal 
Andrews to keepe an ordinary for the enter- 
taynment of strangers only till the next court 
at Ipswich, and not longer, provided that the 
Inhabitants doe at the sayd Court present 
some meet pson to keepe an ordinary wch 
will accept of the same and the Court shall 
approve of, only he hath liberty in that tyme 
to sell wyne and beere to townsmen out of 
dores." The suitable person fixed upon was 
Deacon Moses Pengry. He accordingly re- 
ceived his license on September 7, 1658, An- 
drews being permitted to retain his until the 
following March. 

The Corporal meanwhile appears to have 
vented his spite upon the innocent Deacon 
for in the Court Record of April 28, 1658, 
we find that " Corporal John Andrews 
stands bound to ye Treserer of this County 
in the sum of fiftye pound upon condidtion 
the sayd John Andrews shall appeare at the 
next Court held at Ipswich to answer to 
what shall be objected against him about a 
vehement suspition of severall misdemeanors 
and facts as pulling down the signe of Moses 
Pengry and Mr. Browne his gate and dore 
and Lieut. Sam. Appleton his gate." Mr. 
Browne and Lieut. Appleton, it is signifi- 

276 



The Inns of Ipswich 

cant to note, had been among the signers of 
the petition which recalled the Corporal's 
license. 

Daniel Ringe was licensed in 1661 to keep 
an ordinary but " not to draw beer above a 
penny a quart, and to provide meate for 
men and cattell." The following year John 
Perkins, Andrew Peters, and John Whipple 
were licensed, the last to sell not less than 
a quart at a time and none to be drunk in 
his house. All were bound " not to sell by 
retail to any but men of family and of good 
repute nor sell any after sun sett; and that 
they shall be ready to give account of what 
liquors they sell by retail, the quantity, time 
and to whom." The house of John Whipple 
is now the home of the Ipswich Historical 
Society and because it is recognized as the 
finest existing specimen of colonial archi- 
tecture it is herewith reproduced even 
though none of the liquor its proprietor 
dispensed was " drunk on the premises." 
Mr. Jonathan Wade, one of the leading citi- 
zens, was also licensed to sell at about this 
time and though there is no record that 
Wade broke the liquor law he appears to 
have been an unpleasantly contentious per- 
son. In 1645 he had been summoned to 

277 



Among Old New England Inns 

trial and fined sixteen shillings for " af rent- 
ing the Court" and in 1658 he had to pay 
a fine of five pounds and witness fees for 
" expensive prices in selling grindstones and 
other things." These were days, it will 
be seen, when to set a prohibitive cost 
upon common necessities was punishable 
by law. 

Innkeepers were restricted along with the 
rest, 6d a meal being the limit of what they 
were allowed to charge (1634). In the 
quality of the comfort provided as well as 
in the matter of prices the public appears 
to have been protected, too, at Ipswich. The 
inventory of Richard Lumpkin, one of the 
earliest innkeepers of the town, shows that 
his house was well equipped even so early 
as 1642, the date under which it is filed in 
the Ipswich Deeds. For he had 

IN THE HALL 

One large table, one stoole, two formes 0-15-0 

Three chaers and six cushions 4-0 

In bookes 2-10-0 

One pair of cob - irons, one fire pan \ 

one gridiron, and two paire of tram- > 1 0-0 

mels and one paire of bellows / 

one muskett, one fowling piece l-io-o 

278 



The Inns of Ipswich 

IN THE PARLOR 

one table with six joined stools I- 5-0 

three chairs and eight cushions 14-0 

one bedstead, one trundle bed and curtins i-io-o 

one paire cob - irons one firepan o- 4-6 

one chest o- 4-0 

one fether bed, two bowlsters \ 

two pillows, two flock beds, five blanketts > 8- 0-0 

one rug one coverlett ) 

one warming pan with other implements 6-0 

IN THE CHAMBER OVER THE PARLOR 

one bedstead, one trundlebed lO-o 
two flock bedds, one fether bed, one fether \ 

bolster, four blanketts, two pillows > 4- 0-0 

two coverletts / 

four chests, two boxes i- 5-0 

one table 3-0 

one corslet i-io-o 

one fetherbed tike l-io-o 

IN THE LEANTO 

seven brass kettles, one iron kettle 4-10-0 
one small copper I- 0-0 
one iron pott, four posnetts, with other imple- 
ments I- 0-0 
Ten pewter dishes, etc. 2- 0-0 
In plate 4- 0-0 

279 



Amo7ig Old New England Inns 

From this inventory we gain a good idea 
of the furnishings of an average Ipswich 
tavern, but we are even more fortunate in 
possessing a racy picture of actual life in 
such a house, as it leaped hotly from the 
pen of the gifted bookseller and publisher, 
John Dunton. 

Dunton was the gay Lothario, immor- 
talized by Pope in the Dunciad, who mar- 
ried (August 3, 1682) one of the sisters of 
John Wesley's mother and of Defoe's wife. 
This lady seems to have shared some of her 
husband's Bohemian tendencies for always 
they called each other Philaret and Iris, and 
when their honeymoon days were over they 
settled down in the Black Raven in Prince's 
street, London, where they lived for two 
years without a single care. In 1685, how- 
ever, following Monmouth's insurrection 
there came such a depression in the book 
trade, that Dunton resolved to leave his lov- 
ing spouse and come to New England to 
sell his wares. Accordingly he sailed from 
Gravesend in the October of that year reach- 
ing Boston after a four months' voyage. He 
sold his books, visited Cambridge, and paid 
his respects to the venerable Eliot in Rox- 
bury. The chief interest of his journeyings 

280 



The Inns of Ipswich 

for us, however, attaches to his stay with 
Mr. and Mrs. Stewart at their house in 
Ipswich, — a visit which he describes thus 
in a letter he sent home to his wife: 

" My Landlady, Mrs. Wilkins, having a 
sister at Ipswich which she had not seen 
for a great while, Mrs. Comfort, her daugh- 
ter (a young gentlewoman equally happy 
in the perfections both of her body and 
mind) had a great desire to see her aunt, 
having never been at her house nor in that 
part of the country; which Philaret, having 
a desire to see, and being never backward 
to accomodate the Fair Sex, profers his serv- 
ice to wait upon her thither, which was read- 
ily accepted by the young lady, who felt 
herself safe under his protection. Nor were 
her parents less willing to trust her with me. 

" All things being ready for our ramble 
I took my fair one up behind me and rid 
on our way, I and my Fair Fellow Trav- 
eller to Mr. Steward's who wife was Mrs. 
Comfort's own aunt: whose joy to see her 
niece at Ipswich was sufficiently Expressed 
by the Noble Reception we met with and 
the Treatment we found there; which far 
outdid whatever we could have thought. 
And tho myself was but a stranger to them, 

281 



Among Old New England Inns 

yet the extraordinary civility and respect 
they showed me, gave me reason enough to 
think I was very welcome. It was late when 
we came thither and we were both very 
weary, which would not excuse us from the 
trouble of a very splendid supper, before 
I was permitted to go to bed; which was 
got ready in so short a time as would have 
made us think, had we not known the con- 
trary, that it had been ready provided against 
we came. Though our supper was extraor- 
dinary yet I had so great a desire to go to 
bed, as made it to me a troublesome piece 
of kindness. But, this being happily over, 
I took my leave of my Fellow Traveller, 
and was conducted to my apartment by Mrs. 
Stewart herself, whose character I shant at- 
tempt tonight being so weary but reserve 
till tomorrow morning. Only I must let 
you know that my apartment was so noble 
and the furniture so suitable to it, that I 
doubt not that even the King himself has 
oftentimes been contented with a worser 
lodging. 

"Having reposed myself all night upon 
a bed of Down, I slept so very soundly that 
the Sun, who lay not on so soft a bed as I, 
had got the start of me and risen before me; 

282 



The Inns of Ipswich 

but was so kind however as to make me one 
of his first visits, and to give me the BON 
JOUR; on which I straight got up and 
dressed myself, having a mind to look about 
me and see where I was: and having took 
a view of Ipswich I found it to be situated 
by a river, whose first rise from a Lake or 
Pond was twenty miles up, breaking of its 
course through a hideous swamp for many 
miles, a harbor for bears; it issueth forth 
into a large bay, where they fish for whales, 
due east over against the Island of Sholes, 
a great place for fishing. The mouth of 
that river is barred. It is a good haven 
town. Their Meeting House or church is 
built very beautifully. There is a store of 
orchards and gardens about it and good land 
for Cattel and husbandry. 

" But I remember I promised to give you 
Mrs. Stewart's character &, if I hadn't, yet 
gratitude and justice would exact it of me. 
Her stature is of a middle size fit for a 
woman. Her face is still the magazine of 
beauty, whence she may fetch artillery 
enough to Wound a thousand lovers; and 
when she was about i8 perhaps there was 
never a face more sweet and charming — 
nor could it well be otherwise for now at 

283 



Among Old New England Inns 

33 all you call sweet and ravishing is in her 
Face; which it is as great a pleasure to 
behold as a perpetual sunshine without any 
clouds at all; and yet all this sweetness is 
joined with such attractive vertue as draws 
all to a certain distance and there detains 
them with reverence and admiration, none 
ever daring to approach her nigher or hav- 
ing power to go further off. She's so oblig- 
ing courteous and civil as if those qualities 
were only born with her, and rested in her 
bosom as their centre. Her speech and her 
Behavior is so gentle sweet and affable, that 
whatsoever men may talk of magik therein 
none charms but she. So good a wife she 
is she frames her nature to her husband's: 
the hyacinth follows not the sun more will- 
ingly than she her husband's pleasure. Her 
household is her charge. Her care to that 
makes her but seldom a non-resident. Her 
pride is to be neat and cleanly, and her thirst 
not to be Prodigal. And to conclude is both 
wise and religious which makes her all I 
have said before. 

" In the next place I suppose yourself will 
think it reasonable that unto Mrs. Steward's 
I should add her husband's Character: 
whose worth and goodness do well merit. 

284 




WHIPPLE HOUSE, IPSWICH 




CALEB LORD HOUSE, IPSWICH 



The Inns of Ipswich 

As to his stature 'tis inclining to tall: and 
as to his aspect, if all the lineaments of a 
sincere and honest-hearted man were lost 
out of the world, they might be all retrieved 
by looking on his face. He's one whose 
bounty is limited by reason, not by osten- 
tation; and to make it last he deals dis- 
creetly; as we sowe our land not by the sack 
but by the handful. He is so sincere and 
upright that his words and his meanfng 
never shake hands and part but always go 
together. His mind is always so serene that 
that thunder but rocks him asleep which 
breaks other men's slumbers. His thoughts 
have an aim as high as Heaven tho their 
residence be in the Valley of a humble heart. 
He is not much given to talk though he 
knows how to do it as well as any man. He 
loves his friend and will do anything for 
him except it be to wink at his faults of 
which he is always a severe reprover. He 
is so good a husband that he is worthy of 
the wife he enjoys, and would even make a 
bad wife good by his example." 

So much for this model keeper of what 
is to-day the Caleb Lord house. But not 
all the literature connected with Ipswich 
taverns echoes, as do the letters of John 

285 



Among Old New England Inns 

Dunton, with praise of Ipswich housewives. 
John Adams, for instance, has only impa- 
tient scorn for the hostess of Treadwell's 
Tavern at Ipswich. " Landlord and land- 
lady are some of the grandest people alive, 
landlady is the great-grand-daughter of Gov- 
ernor Endicott, and has all the great notions 
of high family that you find in Winslows, 
Hutchinsons, Quincys, Saltonstalls, Chand- 
lers, Leonards, Otises, and as you might find 
them with more propriety in the Winthrops. 
Yet she is cautious and modest about dis- 
covering it. She is a new light; continually 
canting and whining in a religious strain. 
The Governor was uncommonly strict and 
devout, evidently so in his day; and his 
great-great grand-daughter hopes to keep up 
the honor of the family in hers and distin- 
guish herself among her contemporaries as 
much. ' Terrible things sin causes,' sighs 
and groans the pangs of the new birth. ^ The 
death of Christ shows above all things the 
heinous nature of Sin! How awfully Mr. 
Kent talks about death! how lightly and 
carelessly! I am sure a man of his years, 
who can talk so about death, must be brought 
to feel the pangs of the new birth here or 
made to repent of it forever. How dreadful 

286 



The Inns of Ipswich 

it seems to me to hear him, I am so afraid 
of death and so concerned lest I a'nt fit and 
prepared for it. What a dreadful thing it 
was that Mr. Gridley died so! — too great, 
too big, too proud to learn anything; would 
not let any minister pray with him; said he 
knew more than they could tell him, asked 
the news and said he was going where he 
should hear no news.' 

" Thus far landlady. As to landlord, he 
is happy and as big, as proud, as conceited 
as any nobleman in England; always calm 
and good-natured and lazy, but the contem- 
plation of his farm and his sons and his horse 
and pasture and cows, his sound judgment 
as he thinks, and his great holiness, as well 
as that of his wife, keep him as erect in his 
thoughts as a noble or a prince." 

I would rather have been a guest of the 
red-blooded Stewarts, would not you? The 
touching story of Lydia Wardwell, who was 
tied to the fence-post of the Ipswich Tavern 
where the Court sat, and lashed on the bare 
back with thirty cruel stripes makes one boil 
with indignation, even at this distance of 
time at the ultra-religionists who were so 
little Christ-like. Of course the act of this 
" young and tender chaste person " who " as 

287 



Among Old New England Inns 

a sign of spiritual nakedness " walked into 
the Newbury meeting-house, unclothed, dur- 
ing the hour of public worship must have 
administered a sad shock to the Christians 
of that day. Whittier's description of an- 
other Quaker maiden who similarly distin- 
guished herself makes us feel the horror of 
the scene: 

** Save the mournful sackcloth about her wound. 
Unclothed as the primal mother, 
With limbs that trembled and eyes that blazed 
With a fire that she dare not smother. . . 

" And the minister paused in his sermon's midst 
And the people held their breath. 
For these were the words the maiden said 
Through Hps as pale as death: . . , 

" Repent ! repent ! ere the Lord shall speak 
In thunder and breaking seals 1 
Let all souls worship him in the way 
His light within revealso 

" She shook the dust from her naked feet. 
And her sackcloth closely drew 
And into the porch of the awe-hushed church 
She passed like a ghost from view." 

But fanatical and unfortunate as was this 
mode of testifying love for the Lord it 

288 



The Inns of Ipswich 

would not seem to call for brutal treatment 
before a crowd of tavern-loafers and one 
does not need to be a Quaker to feel with 
George Bishop in his " New England 
Judged " that the punishment much too 
nearly fitted the crime. 

Bishop explains the young woman's act 
as follows : " Seeing the wickedness of your 
priests and rulers to her husband [a perse- 
cuted Quaker] she was not at all offended 
with the truth but as your wickedness 
abounded so she withdrew and separated 
from your church at Newbury, of which 
she was sometimes a member and being 
given up to the leading of the Lord, after 
she had been often sent for to come thither, 
to give a reason of such a separation, it 
being at length upon her in the considera- 
tion of their miserable condition, who were 
thus blinded with ignorance and persecu- 
tion, to go to them, and as a sign to them 
she went in (though it was exceeding hard 
to her modest and shamefaced disposition) 
naked amongst them, which put them into 
such a rage instead of consideration, they 
soon laid hands on her, and to the next court 
at Ipswich had her, where without law they 
condemned her to be tyed to the fence-post 

289 



Among Old New England Inns 

of the tavern where they sat — and there 
sorely lashed her with twenty or thirty cruel 
stripes. And this is the discipline of the 
church of Newbury in New England, and 
this is their religion and their usage of the 
handmaid of the Lord, who in a great cross 
to her natural temper, came thus among 
them, a sign indeed, significatory enough to 
them, and suitable to their state, who under 
the visor of religion, were thus blinded into 
cruel persecution." Bishop, it is interesting 
to note, stands alone among the early writers 
in palliating the offence of Lydia Wardwell 
and in condemning the men who punished 
her. 

Some of the petitions for inn-keeping priv- 
ileges in Ipswich are exceedingly quaint. 
In 1733, for instance, John Stacey, being 
incapable of labour, reminded the Town 
" that there is a convenience on the northerly 
side of the Rock by Ebenezer Smith's for 
setting an house upon " and prayed that ^^ he 
might obtain a grant for setting a house for 
selling cakes, ale etc for his livelihood." 
His request was granted and the resulting 
house is still standing upon the site to which 
it was removed in 1834 from the ledge in 
front of the old Seminary building. An- 

290 



I 



The Inns of Ipswich 

other old hostelry which may still be easily 
found is the Ross Tavern built in 1734 and 
now situated on one of Ipswich's busiest 
streets under the shadow of a magnificent 
elm. The town boasts also of an inn at 
which our first President was entertained, — 
a famous old place long known as the Swa- 
sey house, some account of which will be 
found in the chapter on the Washington 
taverns of New England. 



291 



CHAPTER XIV 

SOME PORTSMOUTH PUBLICANS AND THEIR 
FAMOUS GUESTS 

Portsmouth was exceptionally rich in 
inn-keepers of unusual personal qualities and 
they, in turn, had opportunity to entertain 
many guests of high distinction. For the 
first regular stagecoach run from any town 
north of Boston to that centre of New Eng- 
land industries came from Portsmouth, ter- 
minating at the inn of Mr. John Stavers. 
It was the enterprise of his brother Barthol- 
omew who in April, 1761, thus announced 
his venture: 

" For the Encouragement of Trade from 
Portsmouth to Boston 

"A LARGE STAGE CHAIR, 

With two good horses well equipped, will 
be ready by Monday the 20th inst. to start 

292 



Portsmouth Publicans and Guests 

out from Mr. Stavers, innholder, at the Sign 
of the Earl of Halifax, in this town to per- 
form once a week; to lodge at Ipswich the 
same night; from thence through Medford 
to Charlestown ferry; to tarry at Charles- 
town till Thursday morning, so as to return 
to this town the next day; to set out again 
on the Monday following: It will be con- 
trived to carry four persons besides the 
driver. In case only two persons go they 
may be accommodated to carry things of 
bulk and value to make a third or fourth 
person. The price will be Thirteen shillings 
and sixpence sterling for each person from 
hence to Boston, and at the same rate of 
conveyance back again; though under no 
obligation to return in the same week in the 
same manner. 

" Those who would not be disappointed 
must enter their names at Mr. Stavers on 
Saturday, any time before nine o'clock in 
the evening, and pay one half at entrance, 
the remainder at the end of the journey. 
Any gentleman may have business transacted 
at Newbury or Boston with fidelity and 
despatch, on reasonable terms. 

" As gentlemen and ladies are often at a 
loss for good accommodations for travelling 

293 



Among Old New England Inns 

from hence, and can't return in less than 
three weeks or a month, it is hoped that this 
undertaking will meet with suitable encour- 
agement, as they will be wholly freed from 
the care and charge of keeping chairs and 
horses, or returning them before they had 
finished their business." 

The establishment of regular conveyances 
between Boston and Portsmouth marked an 
important step in the history of transporta- 
tion. To be sure this was not the first stage- 
coach of the country, for Jonathan Ward- 
well established on May 13, 1718, a line that 
ran from his Orange Tree in Boston to 
Rhode Island, and in 172 1 there was a road- 
wagon over the same route. Moreover, in 
1734, two stagecoaches were advertised for 
this same much-travelled road. But Bar- 
tholomew Stavers' line was the first so far 
north, as has been said, and it prospered 
from the very beginning. A month after the 
initial advertisement " several stages having 
been performed with satisfaction, notice was 
given that five persons could be carried; 
that in future the vehicle would leave on 
Tuesday instead of Monday night and ar- 
rive back on Saturday night." In Novem- 
ber 1762 it is announced that the " Stage 

294 



Portsmouth Publicans and Guests 

Chaise will run, except in bad weather, 
through the winter; fare $3.00." 

The distinctive name given this convey- 
ance is interesting. The method of transpor- 
tation set up in 1767 between Salem and 
Boston was a '^ Stage Chaise " while on the 
shorter routes out of Boston a " Stage 
Coach " and a '^ stage wagon " were used. 
In 1772 Boston was connected with Marble- 
head by a "stage chariot;" by May 1763 
we find Bartholomew Stavers announcing 

" The Portsmouth Flying Stage Coach 

Is now finished, which will carry six per- 
sons inside; runs with four or six horses; 
each person to pay 13s. 6d. to Boston, and 
4s. 6d. to Newbury. Sets out from the sign 
of the Earl of Halifax, every Tuesday morn- 
ing between 7 and 8 o'clock, goes through 
Newbury to Boston, and will put up at good 
inns on the road where good entertainment 
and attendance are provided for the passen- 
gers in the coach. The subscriber, master 
of the stage coach, is to be spoke with from 
Saturday night to Monday night, at Mr. 
John Stavers's, innholder, at the sign of the 
Earl of Halifax. 

" Bartholomew Stavers." 

295 



Among Old New England Inns 

The speed usually attained by a Stavers 
coach may be judged from the fact that a 
special express from Boston carrying impor- 
tant news made the journey between eleven 
o'clock one morning and two the next after- 
noon. But " on the road good entertainment 
and attendance were provided for the pas- 
sengers in this coach ; " and at Portsmouth 
they had the extreme felicity to be dropped 
at the door of the Earl of Halifax, where 
the coachman's brother John exercised hos- 
pitable sway! 

John profited so much from the establish- 
ment of the " Stage Chair" that in 1765 he 
left his first inn on Queen street for the 
stand which still survives, and which history 
and romance have combined to make one 
of the best-known buildings in Portsmouth. 
The new inn was completed in 1770 and the 
old sign of the "Earl of Halifax" was 
transferred to identify the site. In the upper 
room of this house the Masonic meetings of 
St. John's lodge were for several years held, 
and the Grand Lodge of New Hampshire 
also met here. 

But it is with a romantic marriage rather 
than with Masonry that the house's history 
is chiefly bound up. For it was in the door- 

296 




THE EARL OF HALIFAX (STAVERS INN), PORTSMOUTH 



Portsmouth Publicans and Guests 

way of this inn that Dame Stavers " in her 
furbelows " once said " as plain as day " 

" Oh, Martha Hilton ! Fie ! how dare you go 
About the town half dressed and looking so ! " 

only to receive from the barefooted girl she 
had hoped to shame the laughing assurance 
that she would yet ride in her own chariot. 
She did, too, for, as I have elsewhere * told, 
she very soon after made an ineradicable 
impression upon Governor Benning Went- 
worth, leading personage in the Colony and 
owner of 

**.... A Great House looking out to sea, 
A goodly place, where it was good to be.'* 

But it was also good to be at the Earl of 
Halifax back in 1774 or thereabouts. At 
any rate the Tories thought so and used to 
gather nightly to drink to the King and his 
continued prosperity. So much indeed was 
the house a place of resort for " the ruffled 
and laced government officials " that John 
Stavers became very unpopular with certain 
other of his townsfolk. The Sons of Lib- 

» See " Romance of Old New England Roof-Trees." 
297 



Among Old New England Inns 

erty, especially, looked with hostile eye upon 
the Tory gatherings in the Earl of Halifax, 
and, one day, when Hopley Yeaton was 
marching a company of recruits down the 
street, he threatened to smash the inn's win- 
dows if any one looked out. No one looked 
as it happened and apparently this so dis- 
appointed Portsmouth's liberty-lovers that 
they resolved to make an opportunity to af- 
front Landlord Stavers. Accordingly, a few 
days later, a mob gathered in front of the 
house and began to chop at the post upon 
which swung 

" The portrait of the Earl of Halifax 
In scarlet coat and periwig of flax.'* 

In not unnatural irritation Mr. Stavers 
armed his slave with an axe and bade him 
tell the invader to desist. Confused in the 
crowd, the poor black lost his self-command 
and struck to the ground with the side of his 
weapon Mark Noble, who was wielding the 
encroaching axe. Noble survived — but was 
an insane man for almost all of the forty 
years he afterwards lived. 

Of course this terrible assault still further 
enraged the crowd, and five minutes later 

298 



Portsmouth Publicans and Guests 

there was not a pane of glass left in any of 
the tavern's windows. Meanwhile Mr. Sta- 
yers, taking a liberal supply of gold in his 
pocket, hastened to the stable by the back 
door, and, bridling his little black mare, 
rode for his life through Jefferson street. 
Two men on horseback came hotly pursuing, 
however, and ere he had gone many miles, 
drew near enough to hail him and bid him 
stop. This he had no intention of doing 
and, adroitly turning into a barn, just after he 
had passed a curve in the road he gave his 
followers the slip. Then he took refuge for 
a fortnight in Stratham with William Pottle 
Jr., a man who had usually supplied his inn 
with ale, and who* because of his Tory sym- 
pathies soon had plenty of troubles of his 
own. 

Portsmouth all this time was in the great- 
est commotion and there was crying need 
that someone with a cool head should take 
the mob in hand. John Langdon, with other 
leading patriots of the day, went to the inh 
with all possible speed, therefore. Langdon 
arrived just in time to put a check upon 
what had now become wanton destruction. 
As he entered the northeast parlour one of 
the mob had just raised a chair to dash in 

299 



Among Old New England Inns 

pieces an elegant mirror! Langdon seized 
the young man's arm. " Stop," he said, 
"have a dash at me first; you may perhaps 
be doing more harm than good here." 

The affrighted slave had immediately dis- 
appeared, and for a long time could no- 
where be found. At length he was discov- 
ered in a large rain-water tank in the cellar, 
nearly up to his chin in water! His master, 
when he was enabled by Captain Langdon's 
good ofBces to return to town, was seized by 
the Committee of Safety and thrust into 
Exeter jail, where he might have languished 
much longer than he did had not the victim 
of the assault sent out the following almost 
lucid letter in his behalf: 

" Portsmouth, February 3, 1777 
" To the Committee of Safety the Town 
of Exeter: 

"Gentlemen: — As I am informed that 
Mr. Stivers is in confinement in goal upon 
my account contrary to my desire, for when 
I was at Mr. Stivers a fast day I had no 
ill luck nor ment none against the Gentle- 
man but by bad luck or misfortune I have 
received a bad blow but it is so well that 
I hope to go out in a day or two. So by 

300 



Portsmouth Publicans and Guests 

this gentlemen of the Committee I hope you 
will release the gentleman upon my account. 
I am yours to serve. Mark Noble. 

" A friend to my country." 

Once released our landlord soon removed 
all suspicions as to his Toryism. Though he 
was personally opposed to taking up arms 
against his brother Englishmen he willingly 
took the oath of allegiance and loyally kept 
his promise not to oppose in any way the 
effort to procure independence. The dam- 
age the mob had done his house was not 
easily forgotten, though, and so slow was he 
to make the needed repairs in the place that 
many distinguished officers of the Revolu- 
tion feasted in rooms that had scarcely a 
pane of glass in the windows. When the 
place was finally refitted, he took the hint 
the mob had so rudely offered and substi- 
tuted the name and features of William Pitt 
for those which had offended the patriots 
of Portsmouth. In 1782 when the French 
fleet visited Portsmouth all the officers put 
up at this inn and here to visit them came 
Lafayette having made the trip from Provi- 
dence on purpose. Upon this occasion as on 
many another of state the white uniforms of 

301 



Among Old New England Inns 

these brave young men had no doubt been 
renewed by contact with the large meal chest 
in Landlord Stavers' attic; it was their habit 
to complete their morning toilet by rolling 
over there a few times, thus making up for 
the lack of the white powder to which they 
were accustomed. 

John Hancock, Elbridge Gerry and Gen- 
eral Knox were other distinguished guests at 
this house and Louis Phillippe and his two 
brothers failed to be accommodated here 
only for lack of room. (The future king of 
France was immediately made welcome, it 
is interesting to add, in the hospitable home 
of Governor Langdon and he so enjoyed his 
stay there that he asked with keen interest 
years afterward of a Portsmouth lady who 
had just been presented to him at court, ^' Is 
the pleasant mansion of Governor Langdon 
still standing?'') 

Washington also once honoured the house 
with his presence, walking down Pitt street, 
on foot, to pay his call of ceremony, at the 
end of his visit in 1789, to General John 
Sullivan, President of New Hampshire, and 
his Council here convened. 

Concerning the house which was Wash- 
ington's own headquarters during this visit 

302 



Portsmouth Publicans and Guests 

to Portsmouth something has been said in 
another chapter but the grewsome story con- 
nected with the place remains to be told. 
High Sheriff Thomas Packer lived in that 
house in 1768, and it was in order that he 
might not be late for his dinner there that 
he sacrificed the life of Ruth Blay and made 
his name infamous in history. 

This unfortunate young woman was in- 
dicted in August, 1768, for concealing the 
death of an illegitimate child, an omission 
which made it impossible to determine 
whether the babe had been murdered or 
whether it had been dead when born. The 
English statute prescribed the penalty of 
death for this offence, so poor Ruth Blay 
was driven to the gallows in an open cart 
shrieking in a truly blood-curdling way. 
Her case had, however, awakened much 
sympathy, and it was believed that the Gov- 
ernor would grant a reprieve. But when the 
hour appointed for the execution arrived the 
papers had not come, and the sheriff, not 
wishing to be late home for dinner, ordered 
the execution to proceed. 

When the reprieve arrived, only a few 
moments after the spirit of the young woman 
had taken flight, the indignation of the 

303 



Among Old New England Inns 

crowd was so great that they gathered that 
evening around Sheriff Packer's house, and 
erected an efBgy bearing this inscription: 

" Am I to lose my dinner 
This woman for to hang ? 
Come draw away the cart, my boys — 
Don't stop to say amen 

Draw away, draw away the cart!" 

Subsequently it was learned that Ruth Blay's 
child had been still-born and that she was 
by no means a murderess. 

The transition of the Packer house into 
" Colonel Brewster's Ta'an " as Washington 
called the place in his Diary, is interesting. 
Mrs. Packer had a mania for building ex- 
tensions to her residence, and whenever her 
husband was absent on his duties of office 
she improved the opportunity to add a room 
or two. The house was thus enlarged until 
it had the proportions of an inn, and Colo- 
nel Brewster was glad to take it over as such 
in 1786. 

This was by no means the Colonel's first 
essay as a landlord, however, for he had long 
successfully exercised that function at the 
Bell Tavern, a house which had been built 

304 



Portsmouth Publicans and Guests 

in 1743 by Paul March and which displayed 
from a post in front an attractive bell, 
painted blue. Here the patriots were wont 
to congregate while the Tories were making 
merry at the Earl of Halifax, drinking as 
long if not so deeply as their red-coated 
rivals. During the period of Col. Brew- 
ster's incumbency of the Bell Tavern, the 
Marquis de Chastellux was here entertained 
and in the published account of his travels 
he speaks of Mr. Brewster as " a very re- 
spectable man, and much attached to his 
country." 

After Colonel Brewster had transferred 
his interest to the Packer house Jacob Tilton 
became the host at the Bell. Tilton seems 
to have been chiefly known as the father of 
Johnny Tilton, a town idiot of whom Mr. 
Charles W. Brewster speaks with regretful 
tenderness in his delightful book, " Rambles 
About Portsmouth." Johnny, it seems, had 
not always been an idiot; his defect of 
mind was the result of a fall occasioned by 
a childish attempt to fly. He had been 
watching the hens flutter out of the loft win- 
dow in his father's stable, and supposing he 
could do the same he stood upon the window 
frame and, flourishing his arms in imitation 

305 



Among Old New England Inns 

of the hens' wings, fell to the ground, per- 
manently injuring his brain. Yet his an- 
swers, like Hamlet's, had " a happiness that 
often madness hits on, which reason and 
sanity could not so prosperously be deliv- 
ered of," as when, appearing one day at the 
mill with a sack of corn to be ground, he 
replied to the miller's query what he knew, 
" Some things I know, and some things I 
don't know. I know the miller's hogs grow 
fat but I don't know whose corn they fat on." 

After a long and varied career the Bell 
Tavern was swept away by fire in 1867. 

One of the landlords at the Bell had been 
a Mr. Purcell whose widow afterwards kept 
the Portsmouth boarding-house with which 
the career of John Paul Jones is bound up. 
On June 23, 1779 it was resolved in Con- 
gress " that Robert Morris should be au- 
thorized to take measures for speedily 
launching and equipping for sea the Amer- 
ica, then on the stocks at Portsmouth, 
N. H.;" on the 26th John Paul Jones was 
unanimously selected to command her. 
Jones at once proceeded to Portsmouth, 
but found the America only half built in- 
stead of almost ready to be launched. He 
was under the necessity, therefore, of settling 

306 



I 



Portsmouth Publicans and Guests 

down for quite a stay, pending the comple- 
tion of his vessel, and the house in which 
he took up his quarters is the one on Middle 
street now known as the Lord house. 

There were great doings in this house and 
out of it while the son of a Scotch gardener 
superintended the construction of his ship. 
Some hint of his social activities at this time 
may be gained from '' The Tory Lover " 
of Sarah Orne Jewett; two years before he 
had been the hero of that historic quilting- 
party during which Miss Mary Langdon 
and her friends made from pieces of their 
best silk gowns the " first edition " of the 
stars and stripes that Europe ever saw, and 
the first to be saluted by the guns of a Eu- 
ropean naval power. This very flag, indeed, 
it was which served as the winding sheet 
for the sixty brave men who gave their lives 
that the Bonhomme Richard should conquer 
the Serapis! 

When the birth of the Dauphin of France 
was officially communicated to Congress in 
the summer of 1782, Jones testified to the 
'^ pleasure and gratitude which he really 
felt '' by a grand fete. At his private ex- 
pense he had artillery mounted on the Amer- 
ica, and amid the flags of different nations, 

307 



Among Old New England Inns 

— with that of France in front, — fired sa- 
lutes throughout the evening interspersing 
these festive sounds with a brilliant display 
of fire-works which Portsmouth folk crowded 
the river-banks to witness. More romances 
than could be told in many books the size 
of this one doubtless had Jones for their hero 
during these two visits to Portsmouth, for 
neither man nor woman could resist the 
wonderful personal magnetism of the little 
admiral. Even so perfectly balanced and 
unemotional a character as Dr. Franklin 
once said of him in a letter to an eminent 
woman : " No matter what the faults of 
Commodore Jones may be, I must confess 
to your ladyship that, when face to face with 
him, neither man, nor, so far as I can learn 
woman, can for a moment resist the strange 
magnetism of his presence, the indescribable 
charm of his manner, a commingling of the 
most compliant deference with the most per- 
fect self-esteem that I have ever seen in a 
man ; and above all the sweetness of his voice 
and the purity of his language. I offer these 
thoughts to the gracious consideration of 
your ladyship no less as a warning than as 
a favourable introduction." 
No Portsmouth girl captivated the heart 
308 



Portsmouth Publicans and Guests 

of this charmer, however, for he seems al- 
ways to have kept clearly in mind his duty 
to Aimee de Telison (natural daughter of 
Louis XV) while worshipping with the pur- 
est adoration the Duchess of Chartres, wife 
of Louis Philippe Joseph, known as the 
" sailor prince." Jones' friendship with this 
sweet and lovely woman had developed dur- 
ing the two months that the Ranger lay in 
Brest harbour. Once, at a luncheon she 
gave for him, his perfect command of sea- 
craft so delighted her that she sent an attend- 
ant to bring from her jewel case a Louis XV 
watch of rare design and great value which 
her grandfather, the Count de Toulouse (son 
of Louis XIV by Madame de Montespan), 
had worn when commanding the French 
fleet in the great battle with the English and 
Dutch off Malaga. This mark of favour 
almost overwhelmed Jones, but he rallied 
to accept it with the graceful words: '^ If 
fortune should favour me at sea, I will some 
day lay an English frigate at your royal 
highness' feet." 

Fortune did favour the gallant soldier and 
he was soon able to fulfil almost literally 
his promise by presenting to the Duchess of 
Chartres the sword of the Serapis' captain. 

309 



Among Old New England Inns 

And when he died, alone in his French 
apartments at the early age of forty-five, the 
pretty token with this lady's miniature on 
its dial was found clasped in one hand. All 
through his career, punctuated as it was by 
more or less serious friendships with women 
on two sides of the Atlantic, he had evi- 
dently worshipped with a holy love this most 
pure and adorable of duchesses. 



310 



CHAPTER XV 

ON THE ROAD 

After Levi Pease had proved that money 
was to be made by conducting stage lines, 
a good many people went into the business, 
and taverns prospered proportionately. As 
we have already seen, however, riding in 
the early conveyances was not an unmiti- 
gated joy, for, even after the roads improved, 
the vehicles were for a long time crude in 
the extreme. Thomas Twining, a young 
Englishman who visited the United States 
in 1795, has left us a vivid picture of the 
kind of " stage-waggon " in which he trav- 
elled. It was " a long car with four benches. 
Three of these in the interior held nine pas- 
sengers. A tenth passenger was seated by 
the side of the driver on the front bench. A 
light roof was supported by eight slender 
pillars, four on each side. Three large 
leather curtains suspended to the roof, one 
at each side and the third behind, were 

311 



Among Old New England Inns 

rolled up or lowered at the pleasure of the 
passengers. There was no place nor space 
for luggage, each person being expected to 
stow his things as he could under his seat 
or legs. The entrance was in front over the 
driver's bench. Of course the three passen- 
gers on the back seat were obliged to crawl 
across all the other benches to get to their 
places. There were no backs to the benches 
to support and relieve us during a rough and 
fatiguing journey over a newly and ill-made 
road." 

Not until twenty years later, when the 
Concord coach, — so-called because it was 
first built in Concord, New Hampshire, — 
came into use, was there anything like com- 
fort to be had while on the road. One of 
these original coaches which has seen years 
of service in old tavern days is herewith 
reproduced, loaded with a group of merry 
young people costumed to celebrate an Old 
Home Day in Hopkinton, New Hampshire. 

The condition of early eighteenth century 
roads and the structure of the primitive stage 
being taken into consideration, it seems as 
if the time made by the drivers was often 
surprisingly good. When Israel Hatch put 
on daily stages from Boston to Providence 

312 




OLD CONCORD COACH 




WADSWORTH INN, HARTFORD 



On the Road 

about 1793 he covered the distance between 
five o'clock in the morning and two in the 
afternoon, changing horses once at the half- 
way house in Walpole. And every rival did 
the thing a little better than those who pre- 
ceded him. Hatch's line had been running 
only ten years, when the Columbian Centi- 
nal and Massachusetts Federalist advertised 
as follows: 

"PROVIDENCE STAGE 

" A New line of Stages will commence 
running on Monday, the 2d day of January 
next, and will start from the Bunch of 
Grapes Tavern, State Street, in Boston, every 
morning, precisely at 8 o'clock, and arrive 
at Providence the same afternoon; and also 
will start from Barker's Tavern, in Provi- 
dence (formerly Thomas Seahen's), head of 
Packet-Wharf, and arrive at Boston the 
same afternoon. 

" The Proprietors of these Stages have 
been particularly attentive to the neatness, 
elegance and convenience of their Carriages, 
the goodness and strength of their horses, the 
carefulness and civility of their Drivers; 



313 



Among Old New England Inns 

and have, and will use exertion for the ac- 
commodation of their Passengers. 

" The Proprietors take this method to in- 
form the public, to prevent impositions, that 
they are not accountable for any baggage 
unless receipted for from this date. 

''Asa Foot. 

" Abel Wheelock. 

" Isaac Trask. 

" Gragg & Easte. 

"N. B. — The Stage Books will be kept 
at the Bunch of Grapes Tavern, and at Asa 
Foot's Tavern (formerly kept by Mr. 
Forbes), Brattle-Square, and at Mr. J. 
Wheelock's Marlborough-Street No. 37, 
sign of the Indian Queen, in Boston; and 
at Barker's Tavern, in Providence (formerly 
Thomas Seahen's), head of Packet- Wharf. 

" Extra Carriages, of all kinds, may be 
had at either of the Stables of the above 
Subscribers, at the shortest notice. 

" Also, Intelligence carried by express. 

" Boston, Dec. 30, 1803." 

By 183 1 the famous Telegraph Line from 
Boston to Albany was binding its drivers by 
contract to make seven miles an hour on the 

314 



On the Road 

average, including stops! This was in the 
high tide of our staging days, however, and 
the reign of the railroad was then not far 
off. To accommodate the most aristocratic 
of the Albany passengers the famous Wads- 
worth Inn, Hartford, which still survives, — 
tap-room and all, — was built. 

The development of stage travel may be 
interestingly traced by comparing the " time- 
tables ^' published in the almanacs of the 
day. In the first year of the nineteenth cen- 
tury the Old Farmer gave a list made up 
of twenty-five different entries and telling 
with exactness the conditions of travel be- 
tween Boston and Albany, Providence, New 
York, Leominster, Portsmouth, Amherst, 
Plymouth, Salem, Marblehead, Taunton, 
New Bedford, Dorchester, Milton, Cape 
Ann, Medford, Newburyport, Haverhill, 
Groton, Cambridge, Roxbury, Brookline, 
Watertown, Dedham, Quincy and Canton. 
This modest list covers all the lines running 
out of Boston in 1801. By 18 19, however, 
business had so increased that the following 
from the " List of Stages that start from 
Tavern in Boston " published in the Mas- 
sachusetts Register of that year represents 
only a few of the lines quoted. 

315 



Among Old New England Inns 

" Albany mail by Northampton from 
Earl's, Hanover street, Monday, Wednesday 
and Friday at 2 A. M. By Springfield from 
EarPs, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday at 
2 A. M. 

" Albany accommodation by Framingham 
and Northampton from Boyden's, Brom- 
field's lane, Monday, Wednesday and Friday 
at I A. M. 

" Burlington (Walpole, Burlington, Wind- 
sor, Hanover and Montreal Mail) from 
Boyden's, Monday, Wednesday and Friday 
at 2 A. M. 

" Concord, N. H., and Hanover over Lon- 
donderry turnpike from Barnard's, Elm 
street, Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 
5 A.M. 

" Duxbury every Monday, Wednesday 
and Friday 3.30 A. M. and evening, Tuesday, 
Thursday and Saturday at 5 A. M. from 
Davenport's. 

" Framingham, from Patterson's Wednes- 
day and Saturday at 2 P. M. 

" Gloucester, from Miller's Elm street, 
every day at 1 1 A. M. 

" Haverhill, from Wild's, Tuesday, Thurs- 
day and Saturday at 10 A. M. 

" Newport and New Bedford from Boy- 
316 



On the Road 

den's Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday at 
4 A. M. 

" New York commercial mail by Worces- 
ter, Stafford and Hartford from Earl's daily 
at I A. M. 

" New York middle line from Earl's, in 
summer to Norwich, Conn., Tuesday, Thurs- 
day, Saturday and Sunday, 5 A. M. In win- 
ter on middle road to Hartford Monday, 
Wednesday and Friday at 5 A. M. 

" Providence mail from Davenport's every 
day except Sunday at 9 A. M. 

" Salem from Davenport's daily except 
Sunday at 9 A. M. and 4 P. M. 

" Lunenburg and Groton from Boyden's 
Tuesday and Thursday at 8 A. M., and Sat- 
urday at 4 A. M. 

" Plymouth and Sandwich to Falmouth 
from Davenport's Tuesday, Thursday and 
Saturday at 5 A. M." 

From Badger & Porter's Stage Register, 
1836, I note the following: 

" Boston and Albany mail stage via North- 
ampton leaves 7 Elm street, Boston, Monday, 
Wednesday and Friday at 2 A. M. Distance 



317 



Among Old New England Inns 

to Albany 165 miles. Fare from Boston to 
Northampton $4.50, to Albany $8.75. 

'' Boston and Montreal L. C. stage, new 
line, via Haverhill, N. H., leaves Boston 
every Monday, Wednesday and Friday 
mornings. 

'' Boston, Concord, Hanover, Burlington, 
Montreal and Quebec mail stage, leaves 
Wilde's, No. 1 1 Elm street, Boston, every 
morning except Sunday at seven o'clock. 

" Boston and Worcester accommodation 
stage leaves 7 Elm street, Boston, Monday, 
Wednesday and Friday at 10 A. M. and ar- 
rives in Worcester at 4 P. M. Distance 42 
miles. Fare $2. 

" Boston and Providence mail coaches, 
leave Marlboro Hotel, Boston, every morn- 
ing, Sundays excepted, at 5 A. M. to meet 
the steamers for New York, and leave Prov- 
idence every morning at 7 A. M., and arrive 
in Boston at i P. M. Also the steamboat 
mail coach leaves Providence on the arrival 
of the boats from New York. An accom- 
modation coach leaves as above daily at 11 
A. M. for Providence. Fare $2. 

" Boston, Haverhill and Concord, N. H. 
Mail stage leaves No. 11 Elm street, Bos- 
ton, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, at 

318 



On the Road 

7 A. M., and arrives in Concord at 6 P. M. 
Distance sixty-eight miles. Fare $3. 

" Boston and Keene, N. H. North Star 
line via Lowell leaves Nos. 7 and 9 Elm 
street, Boston, Tuesday, Thursday and Sat- 
urday at 5 A. M., and arrives in Keene same 
evening. 

'' Boston Forrest Line stages for Saratoga, 
Albany, Troy and Lake George, leave stage 
office. No. 9 Elm street, Boston, Monday, 
Wednesday and Friday, at 2 P. M., via Low- 
ell, Nashua and Charlestown. 

" Boston and New Bedford mail stage via 
Taunton leaves Marlboro Hotel, Boston, 
Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, at 7 A. M. 
Arrives at Taunton at i P. M., and in New 
Bedford the same evening. Fare $3. 

" Boston, Plymouth, Sandwich, Falmouth 
and Barnstable, mail stage, leave Stone's 
City Tavern, Boston, every morning except 
Sunday, at 4 A. M., and arrives in Falmouth 
and Barnstable same evening connecting 
with the boat for Nantucket. 

" Boston, Fitchburg, Fitzwilliam and 
Brattleboro, Vt, mail stage leaves Wilde's, 
No. II Elm street, Boston, every day, at 
5 A. M. Fare $3.75. 

" Boston, Portsmouth, N. H., and Port- 

319 



Among Old New England Inns 

land, Me., accommodation stage, leaves East- 
ern Stage House, 84 Ann street, Boston, 
every morning, except Sundays, at 8, and 
arrives in Portland, at 5 P. M. Distance to 
Newburyport, 38 miles, fare $2; to Ports- 
mouth, 60 miles, fare $3; to Portland, no 
miles, $6. 

" Boston, Concord, N. H., and Burlington, 
Vt., Mail Pilot Line, leaves the stage office^ 
No. 9 Elm street, Boston, every day for 
Burlington. Distance 210 miles. 

" Beverly and Boston stage leaves Stone's 
City Tavern, Boston, every day, except Sun- 
day, at 4 P. M., and arrives in Beverly at 6. 
Distance 16 miles. Fare $1. 

" Gloucester and Boston, mail stage, leaves 
City Tavern, Brattle street, Boston, every 
day, except Sunday, at 1 1 A. M., and arrives 
in Gloucester at 4 P. M. Fare from Boston 
to Lynn 62J cents; to Salem, $1; to Man- 
chester, $1.50; to Gloucester, $1.75; to 
Sandy Bay, $2. 

" Newton Upper Falls and Brighton stage, 
leaves Wilde's, No. 11 Elm street, Boston, 
every day at 4 P. M., for Newton Upper 
Falls; and Tuesday and Saturday continues 
through to Dover and Taunton. 



320 



On the Road 
*' Omnibuses and Coaches 

" Charlestown and Boston hourly coaches. 
A coach leaves Simond's Hotel (late Jack- 
man's), Charlestown, at 7 A. M., and 5 Brat- 
tle street, Boston, at 9 A. M., and continues 
to leave each place every hour until 8 P. M. 
every day except Sunday. The coach stops 
at each of the intermediate hotels in Charles- 
town. A room is provided at each of the 
public houses for the convenience of pas- 
sengers. 

^' New line of half-hourly coaches between 
Cambridgeport and Boston leave as follows, 
viz.: Half-past 7 A.M., and continue to 
leave each office every half-hour through the 
day, until 8 P. M. Passengers taken and left 
at any place in Cambridge, Cambridgeport 
and Boston. Office in Boston at 51 Brattle 
street. Fare to Cambridge 25 cents. Cam- 
bridgeport 12J cents. 

" Roxbury and Boston hourly omnibuses 
(old line) leave Roxbury Hill every morn- 
ing except Sunday at 7 Norfolk ave., Wash- 
ington St., Boston, at 7, and continue to leave 
each place every half-hour through the day 
until 8 P. M. from Roxbury and 8.30 from 
Boston. Fare 12J cents. 

321 



Among Old New England Inns 

"Jamaica Plains. The old line runs an 
omnibus to Jamaica Plains, leaving Norfolk 
avenue and Washington street at lo A. M., 
4 and 6 P. M. Fare 25 cents. 

" East Boston. An omnibus called the 
' Maverick ' and connected with the ferry- 
boat is in constant requisition for passengers 
going to or coming from East Boston." 

Later on in the forties two fine omni- 
buses called the " Governor Dudley " and 
" General Washington " were run between 
Boston and Grove Hall. They were long 
and had very high wheels and a steep flight 
of steps in the rear, with iron railings on 
each side. The guard stood on the steps 
and collected the fares, while the driver held 
the reins over four and sometimes six horses. 
These omnibuses were highly decorated and 
were embellished with portraits of their 
namesakes painted on each side. 

The Dock square and Canton street line 
was soon after established by Hobbs & Pres- 
cott, who afterwards sold out to J. H. Ha- 
thorne, who in turn sold out to the West 
End Road at the time of the consolidation. 
Hobbs & Prescott also had a line running to 
the Norfolk House. 

322 



On the Road 

Some of us who are still in the early thir- 
ties remember well these old Hathorne 
coaches, lumbering yellow things which 
plied between Salem street, Charlestown, 
and Northampton street, Boston, and never 
ran on Sundays because Mrs. Hathorne 
wished the horses to have one day in seven 
for rest. Groton, which is several times 
mentioned in these lists, was a famous coach- 
ing centre. 

The earliest line of stage coaches between 
Boston and Groton thus advertised itself in 
the Columbian Centinal of April 6, 1793. 

"NEW LINE OF STAGES 

" A Stage-Carriage drives from Robbins' 
tavern at Charles River Bridge on Monday 
and Friday in each week, and passing 
through Concord and Groton, arrives at 
Wyman's tavern in Ashley in the evening 
of the same days; and after exchanging pas- 
sengers there with the Stage-Carriage from 
Walpole it returns on Tuesdays and Satur- 
days, by the same route to Robbins's. . . . 
The Charlestown Carriage drives also from 
Robbins' on Wednesday in each week, and 
passing through Concord arrives at Richard- 

323 



Among Old New England Inns 

son's tavern in Groton, on the evening of 
the same day, and from thence returns on 
Thursday to Robbins. . . . Another Car- 
riage drives from Richardson's tavern in 
Groton, on Monday in each week, at six 
in the morning, and passing by Richardson's 
tavern in Concord, at ten o'clock in the fore- 
noon, arrives at Charlestown at three o'clock 
in the afternoon. . . ." 

Very likely it was from one of these " Car- 
riages " that the hero of the following 
graphic little sketch descended: "At early 
dusk on some October or November evening, 
in the year 1794, a fresh, vigorous, bright- 
eyed lad, just turned of fifteen, might have 
been seen alighting from a stage-coach near 
Quaker Lane [now Congress St.] as it was 
then called in the old town of Boston. He 
had been two days on the road from his 
home in the town of New Ipswich, in the 
State of New Hampshire. On the last of 
the two days the stage-coach had brought 
him all the way from Groton in Massachu- 
setts; starting for that purpose early in the 
morning, stopping at Concord for the pas- 
sengers to dine, trundling them through 
Charlestown about the time the evening 
lamps were lighted, and finishing the whole 

324 



On the Road 

distance of rather more than thirty miles in 
season for supper. For his first day's jour- 
ney there had been no such eligible and ex- 
peditious conveyance. The Boston stage- 
coach, in those days, went no farther than 
Groton in that direction." ^ 

The first public conveyance between Bos- 
ton and Groton was a covered wagon hung 
on chains for thoroughbraces. The trans- 
portation price was two dollars for each 
passenger. By 1807 there was a tri-weekly 
line of coaches to Boston and as early as 
1820 a daily line, which connnected at Gro- 
ton with others extending into New Hamp- 
shire and Vermont. Not long after this 
there were two lines to Boston running in 
competition. One of these, the Telegraph 
and Despatch line had a driver named Phin- 
eas Harrington, familiarly called " Phin " 
by the tavern-keepers and by his passengers 
of whom he never took more than eight. 
*' Phin " was a very little man and it was 
said of him that on cold and stormy nights 
he used to get inside one of the lamps fixed 
to the box in order to use the lighted wick 
as a foot-warmer! 

[ * Memoir of Hon. Nathan Appleton in the Proceedings of the 
Massachusetts Historical Society v. 249, 250." ] 



Among Old New England Inns 

Besides the stagecoaches the carrier wag- 
ons added greatly to the business of Groton 
and helped largely to support the taverns. 
For, in those days, the town was on one of 
the main thoroughfares leading from Boston 
to Canada via New Hampshire and Ver- 
mont. Often as many as forty huge wagons 
drawn by four or six horses each would pass 
through the village in a single day, laden 
on the down-trip with country produce and, 
on the return, with the hundred and one 
articles found in the village stores of the 
northern states. 

The list of those who have been tavern- 
keepers at Groton is a very long one. In 
the early days no great preparations appear 
to have been necessary here for the enter- 
tainment of strangers, the result being that 
many farmers took in casual travellers whom 
they treated quite as members of the family. 
By 1752, however, Groton had so developed 
as a stopping-place that Caleb Trowbridge, 
Jr. declared that he " lives upon a publick 
Road leading from Dunstable to Harvard, 
which is frequented by many Travellers; 
that the publick Houses on said road are 
fifteen Miles distant from each other;" that 
he " has only Liberty to Retail, yet is often 

326 



On the Road 

crowded with people who want necessary 
Retreshment, but is not allowed to sell it to 
them; he therefore prays he may now ob- 
tain a Licence as an Innholder." His prayer 
was graciously granted. 

Isaiah Thomas's Almanack for 1785 prints 
a list of Groton innholders for that year, 
and among them appears the name of Cap- 
tain Jephthah Richardson, who for many 
years kept a tavern on the site of what is now 
the Baptist Church. During the war of 
1812, this house was locally famous as a 
recruiting station. It was also well known 
to wayfarers as an important staging centre. 

Groton is so fortunate as to possess to-day 
a well-preserved Revolutionary tavern, in 
which guests are still entertained. Orig- 
inally a dwelling-house and occupied before 
our struggle with England by Rev. Samuel 
Dana, — who had the hardihood to preach a 
warm defence of George III and his meth- 
ods to a congregation notably patriotic in 
their sentiments and so to earn his dismissal 
from church and town, — it was kept during 
the latter part of the war by Captain Jona- 
than Keep. Capt. Keep was succeeded by 
his brothers, Isaiah and Joseph, who were 
landlords as early as 1798. In 1825, Joseph 

327 



Among Old New England Inns 

Hoar, who had just sold the Emerson Tav- 
ern at the other end of the village street, 
became the incumbent. Excepting the year 
1836, when Moses Gill and his brother-in- 
law, Henry Lewis Lawrence, were the land- 
lords, Mr. Hoar continued in charge until 
the spring of 1843 when he sold out to 
Thomas Treadwell Farnsworth. At this 
period the house was a temperance one. 
Daniel Hunt, James Minot Colburn and 
Joseph Nelson Hoar (a son of the former 
landlord) have since been proprietors here. 
For a time in recent years the place was 
managed by three daughters of Mr. Hoar 
under the name of Central House, but its 
present owner is Charles H. Dodge and its 
present title the Groton Inn. 

Twining's description of stagecoach travel 
having been quoted, some pages back, it 
seems only fair to give one or two other 
persons' views on this interesting subject. 
John Mellish, who travelled in 1806 did not 
seem to find it bad: 

'' Having taken my leave of a number of 
kind friends with whom I had associated 
during my stay in Boston, I engaged a pas- 
sage by the mail stage for New York, and 
was called to take my place on the 4th of 

328 



On the Road 

September at two o'clock in the morning. 
It is the practice here for the driver to call 
on the passengers before setting out, and it 
is attended with a considerable degree of 
convenience to them, particularly when they 
set out early in the morning. The mail stages 
here are altogether different in construc- 
tion from the mail coaches in Britain. They 
are long machines hung upon leather braces 
with three seats across, of a sufficient length 
to accommodate three persons each, who all 
sit with their faces towards the horses. The 
driver sits under cover without any division 
between him and the passengers; and there 
is room for a person to sit on each side of 
him. The driver, by the post-office regula- 
tions, must be a white man, and he has 
charge of the mail which is placed in a box 
below his seat. There is no guard. The 
passengers' luggage is put below the seats, 
or tied on behind the stage. They put noth- 
ing on the top and they take no outside pas- 
sengers. The stages are slightly built and 
the roof suspended on pillars; with a cur- 
tain to be let down or folded up at pleasure. 
The conveyance is easy and in summer very 
agreeable." 
Then as now, no doubt, impressions of 

329 



Among Old New England Inns 

travel depended very much upon the tem- 
perament of the traveller. John Lambert, 
who toured Vermont and lower Canada at 
just about this same time, gives a most mel- 
ancholy account of his trip from Burlington 
to St. Albans : '' I had an uncomfortable 
seat in the hind part of the wagon upon the 
mail bag and other goods. I might, indeed, 
have sat in front along with the driver, but 
my legs would have been cramped between 
a large chest and the fore part of the wagon. 
Of two evils I chose the least: but I shall 
never forget the shaking, jolting, jumbling 
and tossing, which I experienced over this 
disagreeable road, up and down steep hills, 
which obliged me to alight, (for we had only 
two poor jaded horses to drag us) and fag 
through the sand and dust exposed to a burn- 
ing sun. When we got into our delectable 
vehicle again, our situation was just as bad; 
for the road in many parts was continually 
obstructed by large stone; stumps of trees, 
and fallen timber; deep ruts and holes, over 
which, to use an American phrase, we were 
* waggon'd ' most unmercifully." Perhaps 
the nature of the country, as well as tem- 
perament, had, after all, something to do 
witH these differing accounts. 

330 



On the Road 

It would be interesting to know whether 
Lambert rested his weary bones, on that 
journey to Canada, at the Eagle Tavern, 
East Poultney, Vermont. It was there in 
his time as it is to-day, right across the road 
from the village green and exceedingly hos- 
pitable in aspect, though it now takes in only 
an occasional guest for whom provision can- 
not elsewhere be found. In Revolutionary 
days the house was a famous rallying cen- 
tre, and it was here that Captain William 
Watson delivered that famous toast: "The 
enemies of our country, — may they have 
cobweb breeches, porcupine saddle, a hard 
trotting horse and an eternal journey." It 
was this doughty captain, too, who, upon 
the death of his good dog, Comus, placed 
the remains in a wooden box and buried 
them beside the road back of the tavern, 
erecting, to mark the spot, a stone with 
this inscription: 

" Comus is dead ! Good dog, well bred; 
Here he lies — enough said." 

Within a stone's throw of the Eagle Tavern, 
Horace Greeley learned the printing trade 
and very often, no doubt, he spent an eve- 

331 



Among Old New England Inns 

ning in its public room talking politics to 
the other lads of the little town. 

And now, just to take out of our mouths 
the taste of Lambert's grumbling, let us en- 
joy the description supplied by Abdy, the 
Oxonian, of stage travel as he found it in 
the New England of 1835: 

" I left Northampton on the i6th at three, 
A. M., for Boston, and arrived at that place 
about eight in the evening. The road was 
good and if we had not changed our vehicle 
three times during the journey, and stopped 
at the various post-offices for the bags, and 
at the hotels for refreshment, we should have 
got in much sooner. The first fifteen miles 
were performed in an hour and forty min- 
utes. The distance is ninety-four miles. 
The passengers were inclined to be sociable 
and as it was a fine day and the country not 
uninteresting, the journey passed off pleas- 
antly enough. An English coachman would 
have been somewhat amused with the ap- 
pearance of the stage and the costume of the 
driver. The former was similar to some that 
are common enough in France though not 
known on our side of the channel. It was 
on leathern springs; the boot and the hind 
part being appropriated to the luggage, 

332 



On the Road 

while the box was occupied by two passen- 
gers in addition to the ' conducteur ' and as 
many on the roof. On the top, secured by 
an iron rail, were some of the trunks and 
boxes, and inside were places for nine; two 
seats being affixed to the ends, and one, par- 
allel to them across the middle of the car- 
riage. Our driver sat between two of the 
outsides, and, when there was but one, on 
the box over the near wheeler; and holding 
the reins, or lines, as he called them, in 
such a manner as to separate his team into 
couples, not a-breast, but in a line or tandem 
fashion, drove along with considerable skill 
and dexterity. When he got down, he fas- 
tened the ^ ribbons ' to a ring or a post in 
front of the house where he had occasion to 
pull up." 

A pleasant picture surely, this of the 
genial driver fastening his ribbons before 
the hospitable New England inn where his 
stage-load of sociably inclined travellers are 
to stop for their noonday meal. Shall we 
not leave them at the door, enveloped in the 
welcoming smile of the landlord, who in 
anticipation of their coming has prepared 
for them the choicest viands of which his 
larder can boast? 

333 



CHAPTER XVI 

SOME TAVERNS OF ROMANCE 

The alluring adjective " romantic " is 
conferred upon taverns for widely different 
reasons. This old house in Westfield, Mas- 
sachusetts, for instance, has for years been 
thus distinguished because it was supposed 
to be the scene of an ardent salute bestowed 
upon Landlord Fowler's wife, one Revolu- 
tionary morning, by no less a person than 
the British General Burgoyne, who was then 
returning, a prisoner, to the Continental 
camp at Cambridge. But, a few years ago, 
an enterprising student of local history ar- 
rived at the conclusion that the kisser was 
not Burgoyne at all, but the German Gen- 
eral Riedesel; evidence further went to 
show that the kissee was in all probability 
the landlord's daughter instead of his wife. 
At this point, however, our naive lady gave 
up research for she could not see why Riede- 
sel should have kissed any strange young 

334 



Some Taverns of Romance 

woman when his own charming wife was 
near at hand! To-day, therefore, the Fowler 
Tavern may be said to memorialize a KISS, 
the parties thereto being undetermined. 

Some other New England taverns no 
longer standing have more clearly defined 
reasons for reverence at the hands of those 
who love romance. The old Fountain Inn 
at Marblehead was the opening scene of the 
most romantic story in all American history. 
For it was here, as she was scrubbing the 
tavern floor, that Sir Harry Frankland first 
caught sight of Agnes Surriage! 

The gallant Sir Harry was at this time 
(1742) collector of the port of Boston, and 
he had come riding down to Marblehead's 
picturesque coast to transact some business 
connected with old Fort Sewall, then just 
a-building. At the Fountain Inn he stopped 
for a long draught of cooling ale. And, 
there before him in the tap-room, vigorously 
wielding the Colonial substitute for a mop, 
was a beautiful girl-child of sixteen, with 
black curling hair, dark eyes and a voice 
which proved to be of exceeding sweetness, 
as the maiden, glancing up, shyly gave her 
good-day to the gallant's greeting. The 
girPs feet were bare, and this so moved 

335 



Among Old New England Inn^ 

Frankland's compassion that he gently gave 
her a piece of gold with which to buy shoes 
and stockings. And then he rode slowly 
away, wondering why his heart was beat- 
ing so much more quickly than was its 
wont. 

Shortly afterwards Frankland was again 
in Marblehead on business, and he was not 
slow, we may be sure, in finding his way to 
the tavern for another mug of ale and an- 
other sight of the charming child, just bud- 
ding into womanhood, whom he had seen 
performing with patience and grace the du- 
ties that fell to her lot as the daughter of 
humble fisherfolk. He was surprised to find 
her feet still bare and he asked her, a bit 
teasingly, what she had done with the money 
he gave her. Quite frankly she replied, 
blushing the while, that she had bought the 
shoes and stockings, but was keeping them 
to wear to meeting. This reply argued 
hitherto unsuspected depths of poverty on 
the part of Agnes's parents, and Frankland 
was not long in looking them up; nor was 
he so long as one feels he ought to have been 
in obtaining from them permission to re- 
move their daughter to Boston to be edu- 
cated as his ward. 

336 



Some Taverns of Romance 

For several years, however, the relation 
between these two was exactly what Frank- 
land had said it would be, and Agnes was in 
close touch with her Marblehead pastor as 
well as with her mother. Meanwhile, she 
was being taught reading, writing, grammar, 
music and embroidery by the best tutors 
Boston-town could provide and she grew 
daily, we are told, in beauty and maidenly 
charm. 

So the inevitable end was helped to come. 
At first, one is forced to believe, Frankland 
had not meant to wrong the child so trust- 
ingly given into his care. But the death of 
Agnes's father threw the girl permanently 
on his hands just at the very time when his 
sudden elevation to the baronetcy made mar- 
riage to her appear an impossibility. So 
there came about a situation which caused 
Agnes to be dropped by the ladies who had 
formerly been kind to her, and that made 
the baronet decide to set up a new home 
in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, instead of re- 
maining in censorious Boston. 

I have elsewhere ^ told the story of the 
idyllic life led by these two at Frankland 
Hall, of their visit in 1754 to Frankland's 

[* See " Romance of Old New England Churches."] 

337 



Among Old New England Inns 

home in England, of Sir Harry's surprise 
and Agnes's chagrin at the coolness of their 
reception there, and of the tragedy of the 
Lisbon earthquake, which gave the maiden 
a superb opportunity for heroism and the 
man the very fright he needed. For, while 
pinned down by a weight of stone and suf- 
fering untold agonies from the pain of a 
wound in his arm, our young gallant vowed 
to amend his life and atone to Agnes, if 
God in his mercy should see fit to deliver 
him. When the deliverance came through 
the self-forgetful devotion of the woman he 
had so grievously wronged he wasted not a 
moment, we may be sure, in summoning a 
priest to tie the knot too long ignored. That 
his spirit had been effectually chastened, one 
reads between the lines of this entry in his 
diary, which may still be seen in the rooms 
of the Massachusetts Historical Society in 
Boston: ^' Hope My providential escape will 
have a lasting good effect upon my mind." 
Sir Harry Frankland was no libertine. All 
his life he passed in fasting, humiliation and 
prayer the anniversary of that Lisbon earth- 
quake. 

With the old Bell Tavern in Danvers, Mas- 
sachusetts, is connected the sad death of 

338 



Some Taverns of Romance 

Elizabeth Whitman, from whose touching 
story Hawthorne is believed to have drawn 
the inspiration for his '' Scarlet Letter." 
Elizabeth Whitman was the daughter of the 
Reverend Elnathan Whitman, pastor of the 
Second Church, Hartford, Connecticut, and 
one of the Fellows of the Corporation of 
Yale College, — a man distinguished for 
scholarly traits, the love of rare manuscripts 
and forgotten books, and whose library at 
the time of its destruction in 1831 had been 
for years the envy of our large universities. 
His daughter, however, cared less for litera- 
ture than for life and though engaged, first 
to the Reverend Joseph Howe of Church 
Green in Boston, and after his death to the 
Reverend Joseph Buckminster, whose name 
and memory is an illuminated page in the 
history of New England Congregationalism, 
died alone at a Danvers tavern with no hus- 
band at hand to acknowledge himself the 
father of her dead child. Though I shall 
not repeat here this girl's sad story which 
I have told in another place,^ I am glad to 
reproduce an advertisement, new to me, 
which I have recently found in the Salem 
Mercury of July 29, 1788 and which is in- 

[« See " Romance of Old New England Roof-Trees."] 

339 



Among Old New England Inns 

teresting because inserted by the keeper of 
the Bell Tavern in the hope of identifying 
his mysterious guest: 

" Last Friday, a female stranger died at 
the Bell Tavern, in Danvers; and on Sun- 
day her remains were decently interred. 
The circumstances relative to this young 
woman are such as to excite curiosity and 
interest our feelings. She was brought to 
the Bell in a chaise from Watertown, as she 
said, by a young man whom she had engaged 
for that purpose. After she had alighted 
and taken a trunk with her into the house, 
the chaise immediately drove off. She re- 
mained at this inn until her death, in expec- 
tation of the arrival of her husband whom 
she expected to come for her, and appeared 
anxious at his delay. She was averse to 
being interrogated concerning herself or con- 
nections; and kept much retired to her 
chamber employed in writing needle-work 
&c. She said, however, that she came from 
Westfield, in Connecticut; that her parents 
lived in that State; that she had been mar- 
ried only a few months; and that her hus- 
band's name was Thomas Walker; — but 
always carefully concealed her family name. 
Her linen was all marked E. W. About a 

340 



Some Taverns of Romance 

fortnight before her death she was brought 
to bed of a lifeless child. When those who 
attended her apprehended her fate they asked 
her, whether she did not wish to see her 
friends: She answered that she was very 
desirous of seeing them. It was proposed 
that she should send for them; to which she 
objected hoping in a short time to be able 
to go to them. From what she said and 
from other circumstances, it appeared prob- 
able to those who attended her, that she be- 
longed to some country town in Connecticut: 
Her conversation, her writings and her man- 
ners, bespoke the advantage of a respectable 
family & good education. Her person was 
agreeable; her deportment amiable & engag- 
ing; and, though in a state of anxiety and sus- 
pense, she preserved a cheerfulness, which 
seemed to be, not the effect of insensibility, 
but of a firm and patient temper. She was 
supposed to be about 35 years old. Copies 
of letters, of her writing, dated at Hart- 
ford, Springfield, and other places, were left 
among her things. — This account is given 
by the family in which she resided; and it 
is hoped the publication of it will be a means 
of her friends' ascertaining her fate." 

I, personally, believe that Elizabeth Whit- 

341 



Among Old New England Inns 

man was waiting for her husband in the old 
Bell Tavern. But diverse points of view 
are always stimulating, and some readers 
may like to compare with my story of her 
life the following extract from the history 
of Danvers : '' She was possessed of an ar- 
dent poetical temperament, an inordinate 
love of praise, and was gifted with the nat- 
ural endowment of beauty and perfect grace, 
while she was accomplished with those re- 
finements which education can bestow. She 
was lovely beyond words. But her natural 
amiabilities were warped and perverted by 
reading great numbers of romances, to the 
exclusion of almost all other reading. She 
formed her idea of men by the exaggerated 
standards she saw in the books to which she 
resorted; and thus when she looked around 
, her she saw no one who realized her ideal. 
&C^^^ She subsequently became intimate . . . with 
L 1.^ W Judge Pierpont Edwards." Evidently Mr. 
Hanson himself gave too much weight to 
the statements in that meretricious volume 
'' Eliza Wharton," whose treatment of the 
dead woman's story he proceeds indignantly 
to condemn. 

Danvers still has one picturesque old hos- 
telry, the Berry Tavern, which has enter- 

342 



Some Taverns of Romance 

tained the public for over seventy years and 
upon whose site stood yet another inn more 
than one hundred years back of that. Nearly 
opposite the Berry Tavern there long flour- 
ished, too, the house of Deacon Gideon Put- 
nam, which was run by John Piemont at 
the time John Adams went to the Court in 
Ipswich before he was President. 

Lancaster, Massachusetts, has a number 
of romantic taverns, among them the Old 
Brick Inn used by William Dean Howells 
in " The Undiscovered Country " as the 
shelter for his heroine when she and her 
spiritualistic father have lost their purse and 
their way. 

" * We will stop at that tavern,' said 
Egeria." 

" They had been passing through a long 
reach of woodland that stretched away on 
either side of the road, when they came to 
a wide, open plateau, high and bare. It 
looked old and like a place where there had 
once been houses, though none were now in 
sight; from time to time in fact the ruinous 
traces of former habitations showed them- 
selves by the wayside. A black fringe of 
pines and hemlocks bordered the plain where 
it softly rounded away to the eastward; a 

343 



Among Old New England Inns 

vast forest of oak and chestnut formed its 
western boundary. At its highest point they 
came in sight of a house on the northern 
slope, a large square mansion built of brick; 
an enormous elm almost swept the ground 
with its boughs on its eastern side; before 
it stood an old-fashioned sign-post, and west- 
ward, almost in the edge of its forest lay 
its stabling. 

" ' That must be the tavern,' said Boynton, 
instinctively making haste towards it." 

This Brick Inn, which Howells with true 
artistic feeling prefers to call the Elm Tav- 
ern, was built in 1804 for the traders of the 
Union Turnpike Company. Lancaster was 
then getting to be an important staging town 
and several houses had sprung up in answer 
to demand. To-day, however, these are 
either private residences, abandoned houses 
or places of doubtful repute, — such as Ege- 
ria and her father soon discovered their 
" Elm Tavern " to be. During the years 
between the incorporation of Lancaster and 
its destruction by the Indians in 1676, there 
is no record of any public hostelry within its 
borders. But in 168 1, the year of the re- 
settlement of the town, the Great and Gen- 
eral Court ordered " that for the future the 

344 



Some Taverns of Romance 

selectmen of all Towns shall approve of all 
Persons to be Licenced before Licence be 
granted to any of them by the County Courts 
to keep such Publique House or be Retailer 
of Strong Liquors in any of said Towns, and 
all Persons shall annually renew thare Li- 
cense at the Spring Court in thare respective 
Countys." All innkeepers were further re- 
quired to have " some inoffensive sign, obvi- 
ous, for direction to strangers, and such as 
have no such sign after three months so Li- 
cenced shall lose thare Licence and others 
be allowed in thare stead." The first man 
to profit by this requirement was Nathaniel 
Wilder whose license was granted in 1690 
and whose place of doing business was a 
garrisoned house on the southeast slope of 
George Hill. 

A highly romantic figure was this first 
Lancaster landlord. In 1673, ^^ had mar- 
ried Mary Sawyer, grand-daughter of John 
Prescott, and in 1676 had fled with this 
young wife and an infant son from an Indian 
massacre in the course of which most of his 
near neighbours were slain. The revolting 
tragedies of this day so burned into his mind 
that, the following August, he and three 
other men murdered on Hurtleberry Hill, 

345 



Among Old New England Inns 

Concord, some Indian women and children 
whom he there encountered. 

Now, as it fell out, these were not " bad 
Indians " but the wives of two Christians 
and when their bodies were found " not far 
from another, some shot through, others 
their brains beat out with hatchets," the 
perpetrators of the assault were immediately 
arrested, tried and condemned to death. 
Upon trial, however, it was found that 
Wilder had not actually participated in the 
act of killing, and he escaped by paying a 
heavy fine. But the blood shed on Hurtle- 
berry Hill was paid for all the same by the 
Wilder family, for he himself was shot 
down by an Indian at the outset of the morn- 
ing assault made upon Lancaster July 31, 
1704, by the French and Indians led by 
Chevalier Beaucour, — and two of his sons 
later paid with their lives for their father's 
crime against the redmen. 

In 1717, Capt. John White, also famous 
as an Indian fighter, kept a licensed ordi- 
nary in Lancaster for a single year. By 
trade Capt. White was a smith, but he be- 
came renowned as an associate of Captain 
Lovewell in his campaigning against the 
Indians. He was the hero of the day, 

346 



Some Taverns of Romance 

March lo, 1775 when he marched through 
Boston at the head of his sixty rangers, 
mostly from Lancaster, Groton and that 
vicinity, displaying ten bloody scalps, worth 
a thousand pounds bounty, won by the night 
surprise of a war party near the source of 
the Salmon river in New Hampshire. 

When Still River was a part of Lancas- 
ter, Captain Samuel Willard held a license 
and kept an inn in an admirably preserved 
specimen of the better class of farmhouses 
of the period. He was afterwards an inn- 
keeper in the Mrs. Charles Nichols house, 
and it was while here that he led some In- 
dian attacks. His charge for an ordination 
dinner, which included wine, has come down 
to us as 3s 6d though the usual price of a 
meal was less than half that. Casual lodg- 
ing for a person was four pence per night 
in Lancaster, for a horse six pence for 
twenty-four hours, and for a yoke of oxen a 
penny or two more. 

Many romantic traditions cling about the 
South Lancaster house formerly known as 
the Bowers Inn. Built in Revolutionary 
days by Dr. Josiah Wilder, it was for many 
years one of the most stately and commodi- 
ous mansions in the whole country side. In 

347 



Among Old New England Inns 

1778, Dr. Wilder lost three children by 
death within six weeks, and his wife, also, 
apparently died of the same dread fever 
that had stricken down the little ones. When 
placed in her coffin she was so wondrously 
fair, however, that her husband could not 
believe the spirit to have left her body and, 
with the faint hope that she might still 
breathe to spur him on, he worked and 
worked over her until, at last, she smiled 
into his eyes and LIVED, literally raised 
from the dead. From 1800 to 1805 the house 
was kept as an inn by Captain Josiah Bow- 
ers, who fought at Bunker Hill, but did 
nothing else for a lifetime which was to his 
credit. After leaving the inn he took up 
his residence in another Lancaster house, 
and there he and his sharp-tongued wife 
lived a cat and dog life until, one day when 
her gibes were too bitter to be borne, — he 
walked around to the well and threw him- 
self headlong into it. Happily, he left a 
considerable sum for the benefit of worthy 
Lancaster widows, so that his name is to-day 
identified with what means comfort and sol- 
ace to many care-worn women. 

John Ayers of Brookfield, — known in 
early days as Quawbawg, — was another 

348 



Some Taverns of Romance 

calculating landlord who finally came out 
a hero. In 1674 history shows us this land- 
lord refusing to pay his share of the parson's 
support on the ground " that he keeps the 
ordinary and has for time past and should 
be free from it." (The tavern keeper usu- 
ally furnished the sacrament wine, and re- 
peatedly was given hints '' to accommodate 
the church occasion.") But, though he 
would not contribute to the parson's salary, 
John Ayers proved himself every inch a man 
when King Philip's war broke out the fol- 
lowing year. Things were looking pretty 
black just then for Quawbawg. The redmen 
had made a sudden rush upon the little set- 
tlement, and the men had been forced to 
hurry their terror-stricken families to the 
shelter of Ayers' Tavern. Eighty-two per- 
sons were shut up within the walls of the 
house, and to this number were soon added 
four more for two women gave birth to 
twins. At the beginning of the fray many 
of the men were killed and wounded, but 
when the Indians, " like so many wild bulls," 
piled up hay and wood against the walls and 
set it on fire, the few who had survived sal- 
lied out and intrepidly quenched the flames. 
" The next night," sa^^s a witness, " the sav- 

349 



Among Old New England Inns 

ages renewed their attack. They used sev- 
eral stratagems to fire us, namely by wild- 
fire on cotton and linen rags with brimstone 
in them, which rags they tied to the piles 
of their arrows sharp for the purpose and 
shot them to the roof of our house after they 
had set them on fire, which would have 
much endangered in the burning thereof, 
had we not used means by cutting holes 
through the roof and otherwise to beat said 
arrows down, and God being pleased to 
prosper our endeavors therein." Thanks, 
however, to the rain '' sent by the Lord for 
the salvation of His people " and to relief 
brought from neighbouring towns Sergt. 
Ayers's ordinary as well as its host of invol- 
untary guests were saved from conflagration 
and from worse than death at the hands of 
the Indians. The old house survived for 
many years, but it has now long since fallen 
into decay. 



350 



CHAPTER XVII 

WHEN LAFAYETTE CAME BACK 

Many of the public houses at which La- 
fayette stopped during his visits to this coun- 
try in 1824 and 1825 have already been des- 
cribed in the chapter on the Washington 
taverns, but it seems worth while to speak 
of the Lafayette inns in a group because of 
the opportunity thus afforded to rehearse 
one of the most interesting episodes in our 
social history. Few Americans under fifty, 
I dare say, have read the story of Lafayette's 
triumphal tours through New England, but 
it is a tale well worth hearing, not only be- 
cause one of the greatest men associated with 
our country's history is its hero, but also 
because it spreads before us, as in a pano- 
rama, the habits and customs of a time now 
gone for ever. 

Free punch as well as bread and cheese 
were furnished at the city's expense to the 
m^n waiting to escort Lafayette into Boston 

351 



Among Old New England Inns 

on that occasion, and Josiah Quincy, who 
tells this incident in his " Figures of the 
Past," remarks that though there would have 
been the greatest indignation had someone 
proposed to provide free books at the ex- 
pense of the taxpayers, there seemed no rea- 
son whatever why municipal punch should 
not flow on this and similar occasions! 

When all is said, however, there was no 
occasion similar to that 1824 tour of La- 
fayette. Congress had offered to send a ship 
expressly to convey to our shores him who 
had once ventured his all in our defence, 
but the noble Republican preferred to come 
over as a private citizen and so sailed quietly 
from Havre. But, once within our borders, 
he was the guest of the nation, and the salute 
which welcomed him just before he landed 
at Staten Island was, by direction of the 
President, that due to the highest military 
rank in our service. In New York every 
kind of public honour was paid him and, 
— what must have touched him most, — the 
citizens generally mounted the revolutionary 
cockade (black and white) in compliment 
to him who had languished in an Austrian 
dungeon out of desire that the French peo- 
ple should be free. 

352 



When Lafayette Came Back 

The first spot in New England which it 
pleased Lafayette to visit during this tour 
was Putnam's Hill at Greenwich, or Horse- 
neck, as the place is generally called, in allu- 
sion to the doughty general's hazardous ride. 
Lafayette chose to walk down this hill, and, 
as he made his way along the steps cut in 
the precipice, a salute of twenty-four guns 
was fired in his honour. From Greenwich 
to Stamford and from Stamford to Bridge- 
port and New Haven the aged soldier trav- 
elled rapidly, every bridge and toll-gate 
along the way being thrown open freely to 
him and his escort. The enthusiasm which 
pervaded all classes in these Connecticut 
towns is worth noting. The story is told of 
an old lady in charge of a turnpike gate to 
whom a facetious traveller observed: "Well, 
madam, I suppose you are very glad Gen- 
eral Lafayette has come, as you must have 
made oceans of money to-day at the gates? " 
The old lady felt very indignant at the re- 
mark. " Sir," she replied, " you must know 
that the General and his friends go through 
this gate free of toll; and I should like to 
have him pass a thousand times!" "Oho, 
then your gates are free now?" "Yes," re- 
plied the Connecticut dame, without a mo- 



Among Old New England Inns 

ment's hesitation, " for such men as Lafay- 
ette, but not for those who come so far be- 
hind him." 

Even the horses were exhorted to make 
the most of this extraordinary occasion. 
" Behave pretty now, Charley," the driver 
of Lafayette's coach was heard to say to one 
of his pair, ^' behave pretty, you are going 
to carry the greatest man in the world." 

Morse's Hotel was the General's New 
Haven headquarters and here he was met by 
the veterans of the Revolution and many 
friends and associates of other days. In 
front of the house passed a procession of 
military corps and of Yale students and, 
after reviewing these, Lafayette enjoyed a 
breakfast " with the mayor, aldermen and 
about one hundred invited guests which was 
handsomely served up by Mr. Morse at the 
expense of the city." While the feast was in 
progress word was brought in that the wives 
and daughters of the honoured guests were 
overflowing the parlours and begging the 
honour of being presented to the great man. 
Such a call was, of course, not to be refused 
by a gallant Frenchman, and, the duties of 
the table being ended, the Marquis hastened 
to put himself at the service of the ladies. 

354 




GOLDEN BALL TAVERN, PROVIDENCE 



IVhen Lafayette Came Back 

A visit to the public green, some private 
calls, and an inspection of the College, occu- 
pied the rest of the forenoon, and about three 
o'clock the General took his departure on 
the lower road by East Haven, Guilford, 
Saybrook and Lyme to New London. 
Morse's Hotel was afterwards the Franklin 
Hotel but the place as a public house dis- 
appeared many years ago. 

In Norwich the crowd from the wharf 
bridge to the hotel of the great general was 
so dense that it was only with difficulty that 
Lafayette and his escort could make their 
way through, and during the supper which 
followed reiterated cheers were repeatedly 
sent up from outside; at each of these bursts 
of enthusiasm the hero of the occasion pre- 
sented himself at the window and bowed his 
appreciation. 

The Providence inn honoured by Lafay- 
ette's presence was the Golden Ball of which 
we have already heard in connection with 
Washington's visit to New England in 1789. 
Thither the people's guest rode uncovered 
in a barouche drawn by four white horses 
and followed by an imposing procession. 
Upon his visit to the State House, crowds of 
ladies strewed flowers in his path, and after- 

355 



Among Old New England Inns 

wards, at the hotel, he received for nearly 
two hours in his apartment and appeared 
at intervals on the piazza in response to the 
tumultuous applause outside. Then, about 
half past four, he set off for Massachusetts, 
being met just beyond Pawtucket by the aides 
of His Excellency, Governor Eustis, who 
escorted him to the mansion which still 
stands, though sadly degenerate, and which 
is variously known as the Shirley or Eustis 
House, Roxbury. Lafayette, it is interest- 
ing to note, availed himself more of private 
hospitality than Washington had done. 
There was not the danger there would have 
been in the President's case of offending cer- 
tain citizens by accepting the entertainment 
offered by certain others. 

It had been two o'clock in the morning 
when Lafayette reached Roxbury, and he 
was an old man. Consequently, it was not 
until the following afternoon (Tuesday, Au- 
gust 22, 1824) that he made his entry into 
Boston and was presented by Governor Eus- 
tis to Mayor Josiah Quincy (the elder). 
Every possible arrangement had been made 
for the entertainment of the city's distin- 
guished guest, with the result that all the 
buildings along the line of march were taste- 

356 



IVhen Lafayette Came Back 

fully hung with bunting and the French and 
American flags were everywhere shown ap- 
propriately entwined. 

On the site of the Old Liberty Tree Mr. 
S. Haskell had just erected a four-story brick 
building, which he had named Lafayette 
Hotel, in honour of the expected guest. At 
this point, therefore, the decorations were 
especially effective. A civic arch had been 
reared twenty-five feet high, decorated with 
French and American flags and displaying in 
the centre a large scroll with the words 
"WASHINGTON AND LAFAYETTE: 
A REPUBLIC NOT UNGRATEFUL." 
Upon tablets at either side in golden letters 
was the following: 

" The fathers in glory shall sleep 

That gathered with thee in the fight, 

But the sons will eternally keep 

The tablet of gratitude bright; 

We bow not the neck and we bend not the knee, 
But our hearts, Lafayette, we surrender to thee." 

On the east side of the arch were two inter- 
esting verses on the Liberty Tree 

" Of high renown, here grew the tree 
Of elm, so dear to Liberty; 

357 



Among Old New England Inns 

Your sires, beneath its sacred shade, 
To Freedom early homage paid. 

" This day with filial awe surround 
Its root that sanctifies the ground 
And by your father's spirits swear 

The rights they left you'll not impair.'* 



Upon reading these verses, Lafayette, to 
whom liberty had meant so much of sorrow 
and service, was deeply affected. So was 
the crowd on either side, and the ovation 
they then gave the aged general was such 
that the procession had to come to a halt. 
Whereupon a most pleasing incident oc- 
curred. For from the door of the hotel 
emerged a beautiful young girl with a silk 
sash of red, white and blue draped across 
her shoulders, and bearing upon a silver 
salver glasses and a bottle of the red claret 
wine of France. Stepping to the side of 
the barouche she invited the General to par- 
take, which he did with his usual graceful 
courtesy. Thus it came about that the first 
refreshment taken by Lafayette in the new 
city of Boston was furnished him from the 
hotel bearing his name, now Brigham's 
Hotel. 

358 



i 



IVhen Lafayette Came Back 

After this incident another and remark- 
able one took place. As Lafayette rode up 
Tremont street, receiving on all hands the 
homage and congratulations of the immense 
throngs that greeted him, he perceived, 
seated on a balcony of a house then called 
" Colonnade Row," Mme. Scott, the some- 
time wife of the sturdy old Governor John 
Hancock. She had been his hostess in the 
old Hancock mansion on Beacon street as far 
back as the year 1781, and now, after a lapse 
of forty-three years, was instantly recognized 
by the general. With the inborn courtesy 
of a Frenchman, Lafayette directed his con- 
veyance to stop in front of the house, and 
rising, with his hand placed over his heart, 
made a graceful obeisance, which was grace- 
fully returned. Then the lady burst into 
tears and exclaimed, " I have lived long 
enough ! " 

The procession had now come to Boylston 
street, and was ordered to halt. The pupils 
of the public schools, under the direction of 
their teachers, had been arranged in a double 
line on the Tremont-street mall, and were 
protected by peace officers. The children 
had been instructed during the past month 
to sing the national hymn of France, " The 

359 



Among Old New England Inns 

Marseillaise." They were all provided with 
bouquets of bright flowers; the girls were 
all dressed in white, wearing red sash rib- 
bons and blue ribbons on their summer hats; 
the boys were also attired in red, white and 
blue, white pants, blue jackets and a red rib- 
bon on their hats. The moment Lafayette 
entered the mall, the children struck up, in 
good voice and time, that glorious anthem 
" Marseillaise." The effect was electrical. 

The third incident of the day now took 
place, and, as was each of the others, was 
entirely unexpected by the committee! A 
young girl threw her bouquet in front of 
Lafayette. Her patriotic act was instantly 
taken up and every child all along the line 
threw bouquets upon the mall, and Lafay- 
ette literally passed over a bed of natural 
flowers, strewn at his feet, and in his honour. 
It was the most affecting incident of the day. 

A battalion of light infantry was formed 
on Park-street mall, and passed in review 
by the general. As he entered the State 
House grounds a salute was fired by artil- 
lery posted on the high ground south of the 
Frog Pond. He paid a short visit of cour- 
tesy to the governor and council, after which 
he was escorted to his lodgings in the stately 

360 



JVhen Lafayette Came Back 

old-time residence of Thomas Amory, Esq., 
now standing at the corner of Park and 
Beacon streets. Shortly after reaching his 
lodgings, he appeared on the balcony, hav- 
ing on either side of him Governor Eustis 
and ex-Governor John Brooks, both of 
whom wore their old Continental uniforms. 

The dinner of that festal day was served 
at the Exchange Cofifee House on State and 
Congress streets, — not the magnificent build- 
ing erected by Charles Bulfinch in 1808, but 
the less pretentious structure which suc- 
ceeded that elegant edifice on the same site 
and which continued until 1853 ^^ be a 
popular tavern and the starting-place of 
most of the stages. Among the toasts of the 
occasion was this neat one by General La- 
fayette: '' The City of Boston, the CRADLE 
OF LIBERTY. May Faneuil Hall ever 
stand a monument to teach the world that 
resistance to oppression is a duty, and will, 
under true republican institutions become a 
blessing." 

On Phi Beta Kappa day Lafayette was 
in Cambridge to hear the great oratorical 
triumph of Edward Everett, a speech so 
inspired, so overpowering, that at its close 
every man in the assembly was in tears. 

361 



Among Old New England Inns 

Josiah Quincy, who was present as a recent 
Harvard graduate, wrote, twenty years af- 
terward, that he could conceive of nothing 
more magnificent in the way of speech-mak- 
ing. And certainly the effort must have 
been magnificent if it, as a whole, lived up 
to this paragraph in it: 

" Welcome, friend of our fathers, to our 
shores! Happy are our eyes that behold 
these venerable features! Enjoy a triumph 
such as never conqueror or monarch enjoyed, 
— the assurance that throughout America 
there is not a bosom which does not beat 
with joy and gratitude at the sound of your 
name. You have already met and saluted, 
or will soon meet, the few that remain of 
the ardent patriots, prudent counsellors and 
brave warriors with whom you were asso- 
ciated in achieving our liberty. But you 
have looked round in vain for the faces of 
many who would have lived years of pleas- 
ure on a day like this, with their old com- 
panion in arms and brother in peril. Lin- 
coln and Greene, Knox and Hamilton, are 
gone; the heroes of Saratoga and Yorktown 
have fallen before the only foe they could 
not meet. Above all, the first of heroes 
and of men, the friend of your youth, the 

362 



JVhen Lafayette Came Back 

more than friend of his country, rests in the 
bosom of the soil he redeemed. On the 
banks of his Potomac he lies in glory and 
in peace. You will revisit the hospitable 
shades of Mt. Vernon; but him whom you 
venerated as we did you will not meet at 
its door. His voice of consolation, which 
reached you in the Austrian dungeons, can- 
not now break its silence, to bid you wel- 
come to his own roof. But the grateful 
children of America will bid you welcome 
in his name. Welcome! thrice welcome to 
our shores! And whithersoever throughout 
the limits of the continent your course shall 
take you, the ear that hears you shall bless 
you, the eye that sees you shall bear witness 
to you, and every tongue exclaim with heart- 
felt joy. Welcome! Welcome! Lafayette!" 
Charlestown, Medford, Dorchester and 
Quincy were also visited by the General, 
but in each instance he returned to Boston 
to sleep. On the day before his departure 
from the city he dined in a marquee on 
Boston Common with twelve hundred peo- 
ple, probably the largest number ever seated 
at a single dinner-table in New England. 
Then on Tuesday morning he left the city, 
escorted by a troop of cavalry, to visit Ports- 

363 



Among Old New England Inns 

mouth. Lynn, Marblehead and Salem did 
him honour on the way, the Lafayette Cof- 
fee House in the last-named city being the 
scene of his entertainment. Beverly, too, 
saluted him as he passed through to Ipswich, 
in which town he partook of a collation 
at the public house of Mr. Treadwell. 
Through Rowley to Newburyport went the 
distinguished Frenchman, and in the latter 
place he was entertained, as Washington had 
been before him, in what was formerly Na- 
thaniel Tracy's mansion house and is now 
the Public Library. 

Wednesday found him in Portsmouth, a 
guest at the elegant mansion house of Gov- 
ernor Langdon. Then he returned to Bos- 
ton and prepared for a fresh start; New 
York, Washington and Philadelphia were 
still awaiting him! Thursday morning, ac- 
cordingly, found the General passing through 
West Cambridge and Lexington on his way 
to Worcester and beyond. On the spot 
where the first blood of the Revolution was 
shed a marquee had been pitched, and here 
the guest of honour partook of refreshment. 
A similar entertainment was enjoyed at Con- 
cord, and that night the hero lodged with 
Mr. Wilder in Bolton, with whom he had 

364 



IVhen Lafayette Came Back 

a previous acquaintance. Friday morning 
he journeyed to Lancaster, where he greeted 
the surviving soldiers of the Revolution, as 
usual, and listened to an address delivered 
by the Rev. Dr. Thayer. Thence he pressed 
on to Worcester through Sterling and West 
Boylston. Judge Lincoln was his host in 
the shire town and the addresses, given and 
received, were most touching and sincere. 

Bennett's Hotel, Hartford, now no longer 
a public house, honoured itself by honouring 
him, but because he had been detained over- 
night at Stafford by an accident to his car- 
riage he could not stop in Connecticut's cap- 
ital so long as he had intended to do, and 
about half past three set sail on the steam- 
boat Olliver Ellsworth towards New York. 
At Middletown he left the steamer to salute 
the townspeople gathered in his honour, but 
by the time Saybrook, further down the 
river was reached, the General was fast 
asleep, worn out with the fatigue of his fort- 
night of festivity, and in spite of the disap- 
pointment of thousands he was not awak- 
ened. So, wrapped in needed slumber, he 
passed out of New England. 

The following June, however, he was back 
again laying the corner-stone of Bunker 

365 



Among Old New England Inns 

iHill monument to the accompaniment of 
Webster's matchless oration. And on this 
occasion he journeyed up into New Hamp- 
shire and was entertained at Dunbarton by 
the son of General Stark. In nearby Hop- 
kinton (N. H.) he held a public reception 
in front of the Wiggin Tavern and was 
greeted, no doubt, by a large number of the 
town's citizens. Yet the only data that has 
come down to us about the day comes from 
an entry made by Miss Betsey P. Eaton, 
afterwards Mrs. Brockway, in her school 
dictionary: " June 22, 1825. Keeping school 
in this village this summer, and Esquire 
Chase called at the door saying LAFAY- 
ETTE was here, and wished me to dismiss 
the school that we might all have the pleas- 
ure of shaking hands with so distinguished 
a personage. His aids were Ignatius Sar- 
gent and Peter C. Brooks, citizens of Bos- 
ton." 

To this time in our history, though in no 
way connected with Lafayette, belong sev- 
eral well-preserved Maine taverns of his- 
toric and staging interest. First place 
among these will undoubtedly be accorded 
to the house in Freeport, in which were 

366 




WIGGIN TAVERN, HOPKINTON 



When Lafayette Came Back 

signed the final papers separating Maine 
from Massachusetts. Built about a century 
and a quarter ago for Dr. John Hyde, a 
successful physician of that day, the house 
was afterwards sold to a landlord who made 
it famous as the Jameson Tavern. It was 
one of the principal stopping-places between 
Boston and Bangor, and many well-known 
men timed their journeys " down-east " so 
that they might enjoy the comfortable beds, 
good cuisine and excellent liquor this inn 
offered. For in those days Maine was not 
a prohibition district and the Jameson Tav- 
ern displayed a roomy bar in what is now 
the kitchen of Mrs. Charles Cushing's pri- 
vate residence. 

The thing that chiefly distinguishes this 
house, however, is the fact that in its front 
northeast room there met in 1820 the com- 
missioners who were empowered to make 
Maine a state. The representatives of both 
Maine and Massachusetts worked more than 
a fortnight here on the matter and in the 
end it was settled that Maine should give 
Massachusetts $180,000 for her part of the 
public lands in that state. Of this sum 
$30,000 was in Indian claims which Maine 
assumed, and the remaining $150,000 was to 

367 



Among Old New England Inns 

be paid in forty years with interest at five 
per cent. The commissioners which made 
this bargain included Timothy Bigelow of 
Groton, Massachusetts, Levi Lincoln of 
Worcester, Benjamin Porter of Topsham 
and James Bridge of Augusta, Maine. 
These four chose Silas Holman of Bolton, 
Massachusetts, and Lathrop Lewis of Gor- 
ham, Maine to complete the board. Nego- 
tiations had been begun, some time previous, 
by the three commissioners from Maine 
joined by Daniel Rose of the Senate and 
Nicholas Emery of the House and proceed- 
ing to Boston they had been met by the Mas- 
sachusetts commissioners. It was only after 
a long session, during which the board sat 
at several towns and cities in Massachusetts 
that they met at Jameson Tavern in Free- 
port and signed the final papers. 

Machias, Maine, has an old Burnham 
Tavern which has recently been purchased 
by the Daughters of the American Revolu- 
tion, who will use it as a museum; and in 
the town of Durham, Maine, there stands a 
well-preserved house, now owned by Mr. 
Wesley Day, which is an excellent specimen 
of the better class of early public houses 
in that state. 

368 



When Lafayette Came Back 

Bath, Maine's shipping city, is able to 
point with pride to the Shepard Inn, an old 
mansion which is still in the family of those 
who made it famous a century ago as a stag- 
ing-house. The first sight that met the trav- 
eller who entered here early in the nine- 
teenth century was a little window in the 
front hall which served as a bar, and over 
which were handed hot toddies, gin fizzes 
and many another delectable drink. Up- 
stairs in those bygone days was a big room 
provided with a swinging partition. When 
a big banquet or a dance was being pre- 
pared for, this could be hooked up out of 
the way, but on ordinary occasions it di- 
vided the upper part of the house into two 
rooms, where as many temporary beds as 
might be needed could be set up for the 
accommodation of the travellers (mostly 
men) whom the big yellow coaches had 
brought to the door. The greatest treasure 
in the house, then as to-day, was the wall- 
paper of the north parlour. This was 
brought from Italy more than a century ago 
by Captain James Hall, a relative of the 
inn^s original proprietor and is in coloured 
sheets about a yard square. One of the 
scenes depicted is the Vatican of Rome. 

369 



Among Old New England Inns 

With the passing of the stagecoach, how- 
ever, this and hundreds of other old taverns 
closed their doors to the public for ever. 
They had served their time, and they quietly 
made w^ay for a more bustling generation. 

" No longer the host hobbles down from his rest 
In the porches cool shadows to welcome his guest 
With a smile of delight and a grasp of the hand 
And a glance of the eye that no heart could withstand. 

" When the long rains of Autumn set in from the west 
The mirth of the landlord was broadest and best; 
And the stranger who paused over night never knew 
If the clock on the mantel struck ten or struck two. 

" Oh the songs they would sing and the tales they 

would spin 
As they lounged in the light of the old-fashioned inn ; 
But the day came at last when the stage brought no 

load 
To the gate as it rolled up the long dusty road.** 

But though the age of the stagecoach has 
passed, the reign of the motor-car is now on, 
and dozens of vehicles draw up at the inn 
door in place of the single rumbling coach. 
Other times, other manners and not worse 
manners either, from the landlord's point of 

370 



When Lafayette Came Back 

view; for these merry loads of automobilists 
have good appetites and pay well for what 
is served them. Moreover, if they are gra- 
ciously and hospitably received, they come 
again and again. There is, indeed, nothing 
they like better than journeying in twen- 
tieth century touring-cars among the old 
New England inns, whose proprietors have 
adapted their houses to meet modern de- 
mands. 



THE END. 



371 



INDEX 



Abbott, Miss Priscilla, 183. 

Abbotts's Tavern, Andover, 
Mass., 182. 

Adams, John, y?^ 9i> 93> 96, 
154, 158, 209, 226, 286, 343. 

Adams, John Quincy, 190, 
266. 

Adams, Helen Reddington, 
120. 

Adams, Colonel Herschel, 
120. 

Adams, Samuel, 98, 161. 

Addison, 232. 

Allen, Ethan, 70, 71. 

Ames, Hon. Fisher, 212. 

Ames, Nathaniel, tavern- 
keeper, 23, 209. 

Amherst College, 53. 

Amherst House, 52, 53. 

Amory, Thomas, 361. 

Anchor Tavern, Lynn, 67. 

Andrews, John, tavern- 
keeper, 276. 

Andros, Sir Edmund, 114. 

Aplin, Joseph, 130. 

Appleton, Hon. Nathan, 325. 

Appleton, Samuel, 276. 

Armitage, Joseph, tavern- 
keeper, 65. 66, 67. 

Arms, David, 64. 

Arnold, Eleazer, tavern- 
keeper. 140, 142. 

Arnold. Peleg, tavern-keeper, 
139- 140. 

Arnold, Thomas, tavern- 
keeper, 139. 

Arnold Tavern, Old War- 
wick, R. I., 132, 138. 



Arnold's Tavern, Union Vil- 
lage, R. L, 139. 

Arnold's Tavern, Weymouth, 
Mass., 113. 

Austin, Samuel, tavern- 
keeper, 10, 

Ayers, John, tavern-keeper. 
348. 

Baker, C. Alice, 62, 65. 

Baker, Erastus, 65. 

Baldwin Tavern, Shrews- 
bury, Mass., Z7, 39, 40, 45- 

Barker, Joshua, 85. 

Barrett, James, 200. 

Barnard's, 316. 

Barnard, Salah, 64. 

Barrington, Major, 137, 

Barton, Major William, 132, 
134, 135, 136, 139- 

Beaucour, Chevalier, 346. 

Beers, Isaac, tavern-keeper, 

154. 
Belcher, Gov. Jonathan, 55, 

62. 
Belchertown, 62. 
Bell Tavern, Danvers, Mass., 

234, 338, 340. 
Bell Tavern, Portsmouth, 

N. H., 304, 306. 
Bennett, John, tavern-keeper, 

157- 
Bennett's Hotel, Hartford, 

Conn., 365. 
Bernard, Governor, 93. 
Berry Tavern, Danvers, 

Mass., 342. 
Bigelow, Timothy, 200. 



373 



Index 



Bishop, George, 289. 

Black Horse Tavern, Con- 
cord, Mass., no. 

Black Horse Tavern, Marl- 
borough, Mass., 195. 

Blake, Capt. John, 270. 

Blake, Henry T., 152. 

Blay, Ruth, 303. 

" Blew Anchor Tavern," 
Boston, T2,, 74- 

Blue Anchor Tavern, Cam- 
bridge, 223. 

Blue Anchor Inn, Newbury- 
port, 246. 

Bliss's " Colonial Times on 
Buzzard's Bay," 72. 

Blunt, Capt. John, 175, 

Boltwood, Elijah, 52. 

Boltwood, Solomon, 52. 

Boltwood Tavern, 53. 

Bonaparte, Jerome, 158. 

Bourne, Garrett, 83. 

Bowen, Col, Ephraim, 125, 
128. 

Bowen Inn, Barrington, R. I., 
220. 

Bowers Inn, 347. 

Bowers, Capt. Josiah, tavern- 
keeper, 348. 

Bowman, Daniel, 246. 

Boyden's, 316. 

Boynton Tavern, 272. 

Brackett, Anthony, 99, 100. 

Bradish's Tavern, Cam- 
bridge, 70. 

Brewster, Charles W., 305. 

Brewster, Col., 304. 

Brick Inn, Lancaster, Mass., 
344- 

Bridge, James, 368. 

Brigc:s. Sam., 213. 

Brigham's Hotel, 358. 

Brigham's Tavern, West- 
borough, 224. 

British Coffee House, 91, 92. 

Brookfield, 56, 60, 62. 

Brooklyn, Conn., 236. 

Brooks, Peter C, 366. 



Brown, Jacob, tavern-keeper, 

152. 
Brown, John, 125. 
Browne, Rev. Edmund, 191. 
Bucklin, Joseph, 127. 
Buckman Tavern, The, 

107. 
Buckminster, Rev. Joseph. 

339. 
Bulfinch, Charles, 361. 
Bull, Ole, 204. 
Bulkeley, Rev. Peter, 109. 
Bunch of Grapes Tavern, 75; 

85, 88, 89, 91, 313. 
Burdick, Benjamin, 96. 
Burg03me, Gen., 334. 
Burnett, Governor William., 

86. 
Buss, Sergeant William, 108. 

Carr, Sir Robert, jy. 

Calder, Robert, 262. 

Caldwell, William, tavern- 
keeper, 265. 

Catamount Tavern, Benning- 
ton, Vt., 71. 

Chapin, Erastus, 157. 

Chartres, Duchess de, 309, 
310. 

Chase, George Wingate, 178. 

Chastellux, Marquis, de, 99, 
156, 256. 

Christophers, Christopher, 35. 

Church, Doctor, 97. 

Clark, Andrew, tavern- 
keeper. 150. 

Clark's Hotel, 185. 

Clausen, John, 4. 

Clifford's Tavern, Dunbar- 
ton, N. H . 71. 

Qinton, Sir Henry, 132. 

Coburn, Jacob, tavern-keeper, 
264. 

Coffin, Dr. Charles, 243. 

Coffin, Col. Joseph, 243. 

Coffin, Toshna, 243. 245. 

Coffin, NathimVI. ^\'i 

Coffin, Rev. Paul, D. D., 243. 



374 



Index 



Coffin, Tristram, Jr., 243. 
Coffin, William, tavern- 

keeper, 85. 
Coffyn, Dionis, 242. 
Coffyn, Tristram, Sr., tavern- 
keeper, 242. 
Cold Spring, 56, 62. 
Cole, Samuel, tavern-keeper, 

74. 
Coles, Robert, 10. 
Colonial Inn, Concord, Mass., 

108. 
Concord, N. H., 312. 
Conkey's Tavern, Pelham, 

Mass., 43. 
Cooper's Tavern, Arlington, 

112. 
Cordis's, 91. 
Cornwallis, Lord, 237. 
Cory, Samuel, 138. 
Craft, Colonel, 89. 
Craven, Lady, 100. 
Cromwell, Oliver, 68, "j^, 78, 

100. 
Cromwell's Head Tavern, 

Boston, 99. 
Currier, John J., 253. 
Cushing, Zenas, 170. 

Dalton, Hon. Tristram, 171. 

Dana, Rev. Samuel, 327. 

Danvers, Mass.. 234. 

Davenport, Anthony, tavern- 
keeper, 256. 

Davenport, George, 254. 

Davenport, Moses, tavern- 
keeper, 256. 

Davenport, William, tavern- 
keeper, 251, 255, 256. 

Davenport's, 316. 

Day. Wesley, 368. 

Deerfield. 55, S7^ 58, 65. 

Dexter, Timothy, 264. 

Dickinson, Joel, 52. 

Dinwiddie, Governor, 100. 

Drake, Samuel Adams, 87. 

Drown, Solomon, Jr., 131. 

Dudingston, Lieut. William, 



122, 123, 124, 126, 127, 128, 

129. 
Duggan, John, tavern-keeper, 

229. 
Dunbarton, N. H., 71, 366. 
Dunton, John, 68, 69, yz^ 280. 
Durham, Maine, 368. 
Duxbury, Tavern at, 11. 
Dwight's, Col., Brookfield, 56. 
Dwight, Theodore, 35. 

Eagle Tavern, 331. 

Earl of Halifax Tavern, 295, 

298. 
Earle, Alice Morse, ^2, 224. 
Earl's, 316. 

Eastern Stage House, 320. 
East Poultney, Vt., 331. 
Eaton, Betsey P., 366. 
Edwards, Jonathan, 62, 153. 
Edwards, Judge Pierpont, 

342. 
Ellery Tavern, Gloucester, 

222. 
Emery, Nicholas, 368. 
Endicott, Gov., 65, 66, 286. 
Essex Coffee House, 239. 
Eustis, Gov., 361. 
Everett, Edward, 361. 
Exchange Coffee House, 

Boston, 361. 
Exchange Hotel, Worcester, 

51- 

Fairbanks. Mrs. S. A., 45. 

Faneuil Hall, 361. 

Farnsworth. Thomas Tread- 
well, tavern-keeper, 328. 

Farrar, Major John, yj. 

Farrar's Tavern, Shrews- 
bury, Mass., Z7, 50- 

Fearing, Benjamin, tavern- 
keeper, 71, 72. 

Felt, J. B., 169. 

Field, Edward, 130, 143, 214. 

Fields, James T., 203. 

Fisher, Joshua, tavern- 
keeper, 210. 



375 



Index 



Fisher's Tavern, Dedham, 

211. 

Flagg, John, tavern-keeper, 

1 60. 
Foot, Asa, tavern-keeper, 

314- 
Fort Sewall, Marblehead, 

335, 
Foster, William, 85. 
Fowler, Landlord, 334. 
Fowler, Henry, 6. 
Frankland, Sir Harry, 225, 

335, 338. 
Franklin, Benjamin, 308. 
Frary, House, 63. 
Freeport, Me., 366. 

Gage, General, 106. 

Gaspee, 122, 125, 126, 127, 
129. 

Gerry, Elbridge, 186, 302. 

Golden Ball Inn, Providence, 
R. I., 188, 189. 

Golden Ball Tavern, Weston, 
Mass., 104, 106, 233. 

Goodman, Richard, tavern- 
keeper, 218. 

Goodrich, Elijah P., 267. 

Greeley, Horace, 331. 

Green Dragon Tavern, 96, 97, 

99- 

Greenleaf, Edmund, tavern- 
keeper, 241, 243. 

Greenwich, Conn., 114. 

Greyhound Tavern, 19. 

Grimes, Old, 40. 

Groton Inn, 328. 

Gunnison, Hugh, tavern- 
keeper, 13, 75, 'j^. 

Hadley. 56, 60. 
Hale, Thomas, 19, 241. 
Hall, Capt. Basil, 220, 231. 
Hall, Capt. James, 369. 
Hall, Henry F., 185. 
Hancock, Governor, 98, 159, 
162, 164, 166, 167, 229, 302. 
Hancock, Madame, 165. 



Hancock Tavern, Boston, 

102. 
Harrington, Phineas, 325. 
Hatch, Israel, 312. 
Hatheld, 57, 59. 
Hathorne, J. H., 322. 
Haven's Tavern, N ar t h 

Kingston, R. I., 29. 
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 207, 

234- 

Hayward, John, tavern- 
keeper, no. 

Heard, Augustine, 170. 

Heard, John, 170. 

Hernton, John, 5. 

"Hester Prynne," 234. 

Hilton, Martha, 175, 297. 

Hitchcock, David, 158. 

Hoar, Judge E. Rockwell, 
III. 

Hoar, Joseph, tavern-keeper, 
328. 

Hodgson, Adam, 221. 

Holman, Silas, 368. 

Holmes, Francis, tavern- 
keeper, 85. 

Homan, Capt. Richard, 170. 

Hopkins, Capt. John B., 126. 

Hopkins, Chief Justice, 123. 

Hopkinton, Mass., 237. 

Hopkinton, N. H., 235, 312, 
366. 

Houghton, John, tavern- 
keeper, 215, 216. 

How, Adam, tavern-keeper, 
202. 

How, David, tavern-keeper, 

194. 
How, Ezekial, tavern-keeper, 

195- 
How, John, 104, 108. 
How, John, tavern-keeper, 

192, 193. 
How, Increase, tavern-keeper, 

170. 
Howe, Rev. Joseph, 339. 
Howe, Lyman, tavern-keeper, 

203. 



376 



Index 



Howells, William Dean, 343. 

Hudson, William, Sr., tavern- 
keeper, 75. 

Hudson, William, Jr., tavern- 
keeper, ^6, 77. 

Hunt, John, 136. 

Hurtleberry Hill, Concord, 
Mass., 345. 

Hutchinson, Governor, 84. 

Hutchinson, Thomas, 77. 

Hyde, Dr. John, 367. 

Illsley House, 251. 
Illsley, Stephen, Jr., 251. 
Ingersoll, Colonel, 85. 
Ingersoll's, 165. 
Ipswich, 169, 208, 247, 274- 
291, 343- 

Jackson, Hon. Jonathan, 173. 
Jacob's Inn, 184. 
Jameson Tavern, 367. 
Jewett, Sarah Ome, 307. 
Joel Smith Tavern, Weston, 

Mass., 105. 
Jones, Captain, tavern- 

keeper, 104, 107. 
Jones, Col. Elisha, 107. 
Jones, Ephraim, tavern- 

keeper, no. 
Jones, John Paul, 99, 306, 

307, 308, 309, 310. 
Josselyn, John, 8. 

Kellogg's, Hadley Ferry, 59, 
218. 

Kemble, Captain, 22. 

Keep, Capt. Jonathan, tavern- 
keeper, 327. 

King's Arms, Boston, 13, 75. 

Knapp Tavern, 114, 118, 119. 

Knapp, Timothy, 115. 

Knight, Sarah, 21 et seq., 
219. 

Lafayette, 42, 51, 85, 90, 158, 
189, 197, 266, 301, 351-366. 



Lafayette Coffee Houses, 
Salem, Mass., 364. 

Lafayette Hotel, Boston, 358. 

Lambert, John, 330. 

Lambert, William, tavern- 
keeper, 262. 

Lancaster, Mass., 343. 

Langdon, Mary, 307. 

Larned's Tavern, Watertown, 
56. 

Lawrence Tavern, 236. 

La Tour, 9. 

Lear, Tobias, 176, 177, 178. 

Leary, Robert, tavern-keeper, 
7- 

Lee, Gen, Charles, 132, 133, 
139. 

Leicester, 56, 60. 

Leverett, Governor, 78. 

Lewis, Lathrop, 368. 

Liberty Tree Tavern, 83. 

Lincoln, Levi, 368. 

Lincoln's " History of Wor- 
cester," 44. 

Lindsay, Benjamin, 124. 

Littleton, Mass., 236. 

Livingston, Elizabeth, 34, 35. 

Livingston, Madam, 33. 

Locke, Samuel, 183. 

Longfellow, Henry Wads- 
worth, 191, 192, 194, 203, 
205, 206. 

Lord, Caleb, 285. 

Lord House, Portsmouth, 
N. H., 307. 

Lovewell, Capt., 346. 

Low. Nathaniel, 251. 

Lumpkin, Richard, tavern- 
keeper, 278. 

Lunt, Major Ezra, tavern- 
keeper, 262. 

Machias, Me., 368. 

Marblehead, 335. 

March, Hugh, tavern-keeper, 

245, 247, 250. 
IMarch, Paul, tavern-keeper, 

305. 



377 



Index 



Marlboro Hotel, Boston, 

318, 319. 
Marlborough, Earl of, 75. 
Marlborough, Mass., 56, 

61. 
Marshall, Thomas, tavern- 
keeper, 68, 69. 
Marston, John, tavern- 

keeper, 85, 90. 
Mather, Cotton, 15. 
Mather, Samuel, 22, 225. 
Mawney, John, 127, 129. 
Mead, Jonathan, 117. 
Melhsh, John, 328. 
Milford, Conn., 150. 
Miller's, 316. 
Molesworth, Captain Pon- 

sonby, 81. 
Molyneux, William, 93. 
Monk, George, tavern- 

keeper, 73. 
Montague, Admiral, 124. 
Montesquieu, M. Lynch de, 

256. 
Monti, Luigi, 204. 
Moores, Samuel, 241. 
Morris, Robert, 306. 
Morse's Hotel, New Haven, 

354. 
IVTowry Tavern, 121. 
Mowry, Landlord, 3, 5, 6. 
Munroe, President, 190. 
Munroe, Thomas, iii. 
Munroe Tavern, Lexington, 



Newburyport, 170, 172, 236, 

241-273- 
Newburyport Marine Society, 

253- 
New Ipswich, N. H., 324. 
Nichols, Mrs. Charles, 347. 
Noble, Mark. 298, 301. 
Norcross, Frederic Walter, 

87. 
Northampton, 57, 60, 62. 
Northey, Abijah, 168. 
Northfield, 59. 



Oliver, Andrew, 84. 

Otis, James, 91, 93, 94, 95, 

96. 
Overing House, 133, 135. 

Packer, Thomas, 303. 
Paine, General, 107. 
Parker, Captain, 107. 
Parsons, David, 52. 
Parsons, Gideon, 52. 
Parsons, Joseph, 64. 
Parsons, T. W., 204. 
Parsons, Zenas, tavern- 

keeper, 157. 
Patterson's, 316. 
Paxton, Gen. Charles, 209, 

237- 

Paxton, Mass., 237, 238. 

Pearson, Ebenezer, tavern- 
keeper, 267. 

Pease, Levi, tavern-keeper, 
36, 48, 50, 51, 160, 209, 
311. 

Pease Tavern, Shrewsbury, 
Mass., 37. 

Pecker, Bart, 181. 

Pengry, Deacon Moses, tav- 
ern-keeper, 275, 276. 

Perkins Inn, Hopkinton, 
N. H., 236. 

Perkins Tavern, Ashford, 
Conn., 185. 

Perkins, Thomas, tavern- 
keeper, 259. 

Phillippe, Louis, 302. 

Phillips, Bridget, 268. 

Phillips, Henry, 80. 

Phips, Sir William, 86. 

Pickman, 266. 

Pitcairn. Major, 107, no. 

Pitt, William, 236, 301. 

Plumer, Francis, tavern- 
keeper, 241. 

Pollard's Tavern, Boston, 

239- 
Porter, Benjamin, 368. 
Porter's Tavern, Cambridge, 

69. 



378 



Index 



Portsmouth, N. H., 174, 236, 
292-310. 

Pottle, William, Jr., 299. 

Pownall, Governor, 86. 

Prentice, Rev. John, 218. 

Prescott, Gen., 132, 133, 137, 
138. 

Preston, Captain, 82. 

Price, Henry, 88. 

Price, Ezekial, 214. 

Prince, James, 264. 

Prudence Island, 135. 

Pnllin, Richard, tavern- 
keeper, 96. 

Punch Bowl Tavern, Brook- 
line, Mass., 231. 

Purcell, Landlord, 306. 

Putnam Cottage, 114. 

Putnam, Deacon Gideon, 
tavern-keeper, 343. 

Putnam, Gen. Israel, 114, 
236. 

Putnam, Gen. Rufus, 90. 

Putnam, Oliver, 251. 

Putnam's Hill, Greenwich, 
Conn., 353. 

Pynchon, Capt. John, 219. 

Quincy, Josiah, 47, 352, 362. 

Red Horse Tavern, Sudbury, 

191. 
Rrv^ere, Paul, 96, 100, 107. 
Rice, Reuben, iii. 
Rice, Henry, 188. 
Richardson, Captain Jeph- 

thah, tavern-keeper, 327. 
Richardson's Tavern, Groton, 

Mass., 324. 
Riedesel, Gen., 334. 
Ringe, Daniel, tavern-keeper, 

217. 
Robbins's, 323, 
Roberts, Robert, tavern- 

keeper, 274. 
Robinson, Commissioner, 92, 

96. 



Rochefoucault, Duke de la, 
160. 

Rockwood, Harvey, 53. 

Rogers, Homer, 195. 

" Romance of Old New Eng- 
land Churches," 20, 62, 339. 

" Romance of Old New Eng- 
land Roof-Trees," 197, 297. 

Rose, Daniel, 368. 

Ross Tavern, Ipswich, 291. 

Royal Exchange, 79, 81, 83. 

Rutan's Hotel, 72. 

Scott, Madame, 359. 

St. George Tavern, Boston, 

lOI. 

Sabin Tavern, 122, 124, 126. 

Salem, 167. 

Saltonstall, Rev. Gurdon, 30. 

Saltonstall, Nathaniel, 15. 

Sawtell's Tavern, Shirley, 
Mass., 113. 

Sawtell, Obadiah, tavern- 
keeper, 113. 

Scot's Tavern, 60, 158. 

Sessions, Darius, 123. 

Salter, Aeneas, 18. 

Sargent, Ignatius, 366. 

Sawyer's, 266. 

Sewall, Samuel, 17, 19, 20. 

Sewall's Diary, 17, 208. 

Shays, Captain Daniel, 43, 45. 

Shays Rebellion, The, 42, 45. 

Sheaffe, Susanna, 81. 

Shepard Inn, Bath, Me., 369. 

Sherman, Roger, 151, 154. 

Ship Tavern. Boston, Tj, 78. 

Shirley, Governor, lOi. 

Shrewsbury, Mass., 36, 50, 
56, 61. 

Simond's Hotel, Charles- 
town, 321. 

Smith, Aaron, 42, 52. 

Smith, Sarah, 64. 

Somerby, Henry, 243. 

Southworth, Constant, 
tavern-keeper, 11. 

Spencer, 159. 



379 



Index 



spencer, General, 139. 
Spofford, Mrs. Harriett 

Prescott, 267. 
Springfield, 60. 
Stacey, John, tavern-keeper, 

290. 
Stanton, Col. Joseph, 132, 

134. 
Stanwood, Joseph, 254. 
Stark, Gen. John, 89, 366. 
Stavers, Bartholomew, 292, 

295- 
Stavers, John, tavern-keeper, 

292, 295, 297. 
Stetson, Prince, tavern- 

keeper, 259, 265. 
Stevens, James, tavern- 

keeper, 223. 
Stewart, Landlord, 281. 
Stiles, Rev. Ezra, 70. 
Stockb ridge, 233. 
Stocker, Captain Ebenezer, 

263. 
Stone's City Tavern, Boston, 

319. 

Stratford Ferry, 49. 

Sudbury, 56, 61. 

Sunderland, 59. 

Sun Hotel, Newburyport, 
264. 

Surriage, Agnes, 225, 335. 

Swasey House, Ipswich, 291. 

Swasey, Major Joseph, 170. 

Swasey, Susanna, tavern- 
keeper, 170. 

Sykes, Colonel Reuben, 46, 

51. 
Symonds, Francis, tavern- 
keeper, 235. 

Taft's Inn, 183. 
Talleyrand, Baron de, 256. 
Talleyrand, 102. 
Tilton, Jacob, tavern-keeper, 

305. 
Titcomb. Jonathan, 271. 
Tracy, John, 257. 
Tracy, Nathaniel, 172, 264. 



Tripp, John, 220. 
Trowbridge, Caleb, Jr., 326. 
Tucker, William E., 170. 
Turner, Robert, 74. 
Twining, Thomas, 311. 

Upshall, Nicholas, 79. 
United States Arms, 51. 
Upton Tavern, 45. 

Vane, Governor, 75. 

Vardy, Luke, tavern-keeper, 

79, 81. 
Vaudereuil, M. de, 256. 
Vila, James, 85. 
Vyall, John, i, ^7. 

Wade, Jonathan, 277. 

Wadsworth Inn, Hartford, 
Conn., 315. 

Wales, Henry Ware, 204. 

Walker, Thomas, 340. 

Walker's Tavern, Charles- 
town, N. H., 237. 

Wallace, tavern-keeper, 18. 

Walpole, 313. 

Wanton, Governor, 123. 

Ward, General Artemas, 39, 
44. 

Ward's "Old Times in 
Shrewsbury," 50. 

Wardwell, Jonathan, 294. 

Ward well, Lydia, 287, 290. 

Warren, James, 271. 

Warwick Neck, R. I., 135, 
138. 

Washington, George, 37, 51, 
100, loi, 148-190, 201, 260, 
302. 

Washington Hotel, New- 
buryport, 265. 

Watertown. 56, 6t. 

Watson, Capt. William, 
tavern-keeper, 331. 

Waumanitt, S, 6. 

Wayside Inn, Sudbury, 
Mass., it6. 

Webster, Daniel, 96, 267, 366. 



300 



Index 



Wells, Me., Tavern at, ii. 
Wentworth Arms, Newbury- 

port, 262. 
Wentworth, Gov. Benning, 

297. 
Wentworth, Col. Michael, 

175. 

West Brookfield Tavern, 117, 
158. 

Westcarr, Dr. John, 219. 

Westfield, Mass., 334. 

Weston, 56. 

Whipple, Capt. Abraham, 
126, 127. 

Whipple, John, tavern-keeper, 
12. 

Whipple, John, 277. 

White, Capt. John, tavern- 
keeper, 346. 

White, John, 179. 

Whitman, Elizabeth, 234, 339. 

Whitman, Rev. Elnathan, 
339- 

Whitman, Valentine, 6. 

Whittier, John Greenleaf, 
288. 

Wigglesworth, Edward, 257. 

Wiggin Tavern, 235, 366. 

Wilder, Nathaniel, tavern- 
keeper, 215, 345. 

Wilder, Dr. Josiah, 347. 

Wild's, 316. 

Wilde's, 319. 



Willard, Major Simon, 109. 

Willey, Zebulon, 175. 

Williams, Abraham, tavern- 
keeper, 160. 

Williams, Eleazer, tavern- 
keeper, 157. 

Williams, Job, 85. 

Williams, Rev. John, 64. 

Williams, Roger, 4, 6. 

Williams Tavern, Marlboro, 
Mass., 116, 160. 

Winn, Lieut. Joseph, tavern- 
keeper, 209, 229. 

Winship, Jason, 112. 

Winthrop, Gov., 7, 9, 75. 

Wolfe, General, 236, 252. 

Wolfe Tavern, Newburyport, 
236, 251, 253, 255, 265. 

Woodbridge, Benjamin, 80. 

Woodward, Richard, tavern- 
keeper, 212. 

Worcester, 56, 61. 

Worcester Society of An- 
tiquity, 237. 

Wright, Amos, tavern- 
keeper, iii. 

Wright Tavern, The, Con- 
cord, Mass., no. 

Wyman, Jabez, ii2. 

Yeaton, Hopley, 298. 
York, Maine, 236. 



381 



A 















'bv^ 






o \P N Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 1 1 

* ^ Neutralizing Agent: Magnesium Oxide r| 

p.0 Treatment Date: 





MAY 1998 

BBKKEEPER 



rv. 



PRESERVATION TECHNOLOGIES, LP. 
1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 






.'•»- '> 



co^c:^."^^o 



^" c^'L"'* <^ 









• /% 












A 9^ 



















]AM1.6^^ 




